3V  /  * 


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2a  1952 


tofQAl 


HISTORY  OF  THE  MISSIONS 


JAPAN  AND  PARAGUAY. 


CECILIA  MARY  CADDELL, 

Author  of  "the  snowdrop,"  "the  miner's  daughter," 
"  tales  of  the  festivals,"  etc. 


Ttf eto  Yorft: 

D.    &   J.    SADLIER   &   CO.,    164   WILLIAM   STREET. 

BOSTON! — 128     FI  D  E  R  AL-S  TKK  E  T  . 

MONTREAL  I 

CORNER  OF  NOTRE-DAME  AND  ST.   FRANCIS  XATIER  STREETS. 


81 


PREFACE. 


The  history  of  the  brief  existence  of  Christianity  in  Japan, 
and  of  the  terrible  persecution  by  which  it  was  utterly  ex- 
tirpated in  that  island,  is  at  once  a  melancholy  and  a  glo- 
rious episode  in  the  annals  of  the  Church.  In  the  Japanese 
we  behold  the  most  highly-gifted  of  the  Asiatic  races  of 
modem  times  receiving  the  Gospel  with  a  joy  and  a  fervour 
which  remind  us  of  primitive  ages,  when  thousands  in  one 
single  day  would  run  at  the  divine  call  to  fill  the  apostolic 
net,  and  when  the  multitude  of  the  faithful,  serving  God 
with  one  heart  and  one  soul,  resembled  rather  the  chosen 
few  who  in  later  days  have  left  the  crowd  to  follow  the 
higher  path  of  evangelical  perfection,  than  the  mass  of  ordi- 
nary believers.  But  if  the  Japanese  excite  our  admiration 
in  their  willing  reception  of  gospel-truth,  and  their  fervour 
in  obeying  its  precepts  and  counsels,  no  less,  or  rather  still 
more  exalted  are  the  feelings  with  which  we  must  regard 
the  spirit  in  which  they  met  the  fiery  trial  which  came  upon 
them.  Kever  in  the  times  of  the  old  pagan  persecutions 
was  a  more  glorious  spectacle  exhibited  of  men,  women,  and 
children,  rushing  to  claim  the  martyr's  palm,  and  seeking 
sufferings  and  torments  as  others  seek  honours  and  plea- 
sures. 

Still  the  history  has  its  melancholy  page,  and  all  the 
more  dark  and  gloomy  for  the  glory  which  had  preceded. 
In  this  fair  and  promising  land  the  Church  has  ceased  to 
be,  as  utterly  as  if  the  Cross  had  never  been  planted  on  her 
shores ;  nay,  a  far  sadder  case  is  hers ;  for  not  pagan  ignor- 
ance alone,  but  bitter  prejudice  and  hatred,  now  close  her 
gates  against  the  good  tidings  of  salvation ;  and  the  Chris- 
tian cannot  so  much  as  put  one  foot  upon  her  soil  without 
denying  his  faith  by  trampling  on  the  sign  of  his  redemp- 
tion. 


VI  PREFACE. 

It  is,  we  may  say,  almost  an  exceptional  instance  in  the 
history  of  Christianity,  to  see  a  nourishing  Church  thus 
completely  extirpated  from  the  soil  where  it  had  blossomed 
and  borne  such  rich  and  golden  fruit.  True  it  is,  that 
Churches  once  abundantly  blessed  have  been  turned  into 
desolation,  as  in  the  case  of  various  cities  and  even  whole 
regions  of  Asia  Minor ;  but  there  corruption,  and  degeneracy, 
and  lukewarmness,  and  the  spirit  of  heresy  and  schism,  had 
preceded  the  storm  ;  and  when  the  day  of  trial  came,  and 
the  blast  of  persecution  was  let  loose,  the  tree  fell,  for  it 
was  already  rotten  at  the  core.  It  excites  in  us,  therefore, 
more  sorrow  than  wonder,  when  we  behold  no  longer  those 
Churches  of  the  East,  once  burning  lights,  which  the  be- 
loved disciple  addressed  in  accents  of  solemn  warning. 
Their  candlestick  is  removed.  God  threatened  ;  and  He  has 
made  good  His  word.  But  far  otherwise  was  the  case  of 
Japan.  She  expired  in  the  fervour  of  her  first  love  ;  and  in 
this,  perhaps  solitary  instance,  we  seem  to  look  in  vain  for 
the  fulfilment  of  the  proverb,  that  the  blood  of  the  martyrs 
is  the  seed  of  the  Church.  The  secret  of  this  severe  dispen- 
sation is  with  God.  Humanly  speaking,  however,  we  seem 
to  see  one  reason  to  account  for  so  sad  a  failure  :  the  delay 
in  the  formation  of  an  indigenous  clergy.  It  has  been  the 
custom  of  the  Church,  from  the  apostolic  age  downwards,  to 
proceed  to  the  establishment  of  a  native  clergy  whenever 
and  as  soon  as  it  has  been  possible  and  prudent  so  to  do.  Ex- 
perience has  fully  confirmed  the  wisdom  of  this  measure ; 
and  no  Church  has  been  fouud  to  possess  that  inherent 
strength  which  can  alone  guarantee  its  permanence,  while 
served  only  by  foreign  pastors.  Let  but  a  persecution  arise 
sufficiently  severe  and  continuous  to  expel  and  annihilate 
the  missionaries, —  and  such  was  the  policy  successfully  car- 
ried out  by  the  Japanese  government, — and  their  unhappy 
and  helpless  flock,  however  numerous  and  zealous,  left  to 
themselves,  or  rather  in  the  hands  of  the  ruthless  enemies  of 
their  faith,  may,  it  is  true,  suffer  and  die  in  the  first  genera- 
tion, but  must  dwindle  away  in  the  second.  Without  sacra- 
ments, save  the  one  initiatory  rite  ;  without  ministry,  with- 
out teachers, — it  can  only  be  a  question  of  time  how  soon 
the  light  of  faith  must  become  utterly  extinguished. 

Doubtless  the  heroic  fathers  who  planted  the  gospel  in 
Japan  saw,  or  thought  they  saw,  reasons  for  the  delay,  the 
consequences  of  which  were  so  disastrous.  We  ought  to  be 
slow  to  blame  saintly  men  who  sealed  their  mission  in  blood 
and  tortures ;  yet  may  we  be  allowed  to  regret  that  any  ob- 


PR  K  FACE.  Vll 

stacle  should  have  been,  or  have  been  felt  to  be,  sufficiently 
great  to  stand  in  the  way  of  so  important  an  object.  The 
intelligence  of  the  Japanese  disposition,  and  the  fer- 
vour and  zeal  displayed  by  numbers  of  the  converts  in  per- 
forming every  Christian  work  but  such  as  a  participation 
in  the  ministry  would  have  alone  qualified  them  to  under- 
take, would  appear  to  have  furnished  great  facilities  for  the 
formation  of  a  native  priesthood.  "In  the  first  centuries 
of  Christianity  "(we  quote  a  modern  historian  of  the  Church), 
"  in  the  apostolic  ages,  men  would  have  constrained  these 
good  Japanese  lords  to  become  priests  and  even  bishops,  and 
to  be  the  pastors  of  those  of  whom  they  had  been  the  rulers 
or  kings,  as  in  the  case  of  St.  Denys  the  Areopagite,  Synesius 
of  Ptolemais,  St.  Ambrose  of  Milan,  St.  Germanus  of  Aux- 
erre."  And  again  he  observes,  "  Christianity  had  flourished 
in  Japan  for  twenty  or  thirty  years  ;  it  held  a  dominant  po- 
sition in  several  provinces  and  kingdoms.  The  Japanese 
Christians  gave  proofs  of  wonderful  intelligence  and  virtue. 
Moreover,  conformably  to  the  Council  of  Trent,  it  would 
have  been  easy  in  the  space  of  thirty  years  to  have  established 
some  seminary  to  train  for  the  priesthood  those  admirable 
children  whom  we  have  seen  become  the  apostles  of  their 
families,  and  whom  we  shall  behold  running  to  martyrdom 
as  to  a  festal  holiday."  Indeed  it  appears  from  a  speech  of 
some  Japanese  ambassadors  sent  to  Rome,  that  such  was 
the  project  and  desire  of  the  great  pontiff  Gregory  XIII., 
as  they  even  speak  of  them  as  being  already  founded.  We 
can,  however,  discover  no  trace  of  any  seminary  actually 
existing,  except  some  of  a  secular  character  for  the  nobles. 
A  small  number  of  Japanese  priests  were  ordained  previous 
to  the  ruinous  persecution  which  extirpated  the  missionary 
fathers,  aud  for  a  time  preserved  the  last  sparks  of  the  faith 
in  silence  and  in  shade ;  but  this  native  clergy,  having  no 
bishops,  were  unable  to  perpetuate  themselves  by  fresh  ordi- 
nations, and  the  veterans  of  the  priesthood  died  without 
successors. 

In  the  year  1709,  an  Italian  priest,  Dr.  Sidotti,  landed 
from  Manilla  on  the  Japanese  coast,  made  many  proselytes, 
and  suffered  a  cruel  death  after  a  lingering  imprisonment. 
Other  heroic  missionaries,  possibly  Spaniards  from  the  Phi- 
lippines, may  have  trod  the  same  glorious  path,  and  sought 
the  crown  of  apostleship  without  any  other  witness  than 
God  and  His  angels.  Be  this  as  it  may,  it  is  asserted  by 
Coreans  who  frequent  the  seas  of  Japan,  that  a  tradition  of 
the  faith  is  still  sacredly  preserved  anions  the  people  like  a 


Vlll  PREFACE. 

treasure  hidden  away  in  the  secret  recesses  of  the  land. 
Ma;/  the  prayers  of  these  forlorn  sheep  arise  to  the  Great 
Pastor  of  souls,  and  mingle  with  the  intercessory  voices  of 
Japan's  countless  martyrs,  and  the  devoted  sons  of  St.  Igna- 
tius, who  by  word  and  example  taught  them  to  die  for  the 
faith  !  What  may  not  be  hoped  for  a  land  which  possesses 
the  descendants  of  so  many  heroes  of  the  Cross,  whose  blood 
must  plead  so  powerfully  before  the  throne  of  mercy  for 
their  unhappy  country ! 

Hitherto  there  has  been  no  change  in  the  religious 
condition  of  Japan  ;  the  laws  excluding  strangers  are  still 
rigorously  enforced.  But  circumstances  have  lately  arisen 
which  seem  to  evince  a  disposition  on  the  part  of  the  Ja- 
panese to  lay  aside  their  contempt  for  Europe.  Their 
princes  are  said  to  learn  the  Dutch  language,  and  to  seek 
information  respecting  our  sciences  and  arts.  Perhaps  this 
same  curiosity  may  lead  them  to  become  acquainted  with 
that  religion  which  lies  at  the  foundation  of  European 
civilisation.  Nor  will  this  conjecture  appear  improbable, 
when  we  are  told,  that  in  1820  certain  Japanese  repaired  to 
Batavia  for  the  purpose  of  purchasing  books  of  Catholic 
theology  and  devotion.  But  anyhow,  the  inhospitable  ex- 
clusiveness  of  this  great  nation  cannot  prevent  its  fishermen 
from  holding  communication  with  the  adjacent  coasts ; 
and  Christianity,  conveyed  to  Rome  by  a  fisherman,  may 
surely  not  despair  of  re-entering  Nangasaki  and  Miako. 

There  are  two  modes  of  access  open  ;  one  from  the 
coast  of  Corea,  that  land  which  has  been  so  recently  hal- 
lowed by  the  blood  of  such  glorious  martyrs,  and  whose 
catechists  may  ere  long  convey  the  priests  of  Holy  Church 
to  the  shores  of  Japan.  The  other  is  from  the  islands  of 
Loo-Choo,  adjoining  and  tributary  to  Japan,  to  which  our 
missioners  have  already  pushed  forward  their  outposts  :  once 
more  has  the  See  of  Peter  summoned  a  bishop  to  occupy 
this  remote  and  perilous  post ;  and  when  Rome  sounds  the 
advance,  it  is  the  signal  of  conquest.  Surely,  if  Dioclesian 
decreed  himself  the  title  of  "  exterminator  of  Christianity," 
and  yet  neither  by  the  skill  of  his  jurists  nor  by  the  power 
of  his  legions  was  able  to  uproot  the  Cross  from  one  single 
province  of  the  empire,  the  faithful  will  be  long  ere  they 
suppose  that  what  Roman  tyrants  failed  to  effect  has  been 
accomplished  by  the  Dairi  of  Japan.  And  what  hopes  may 
not  be  entertained  of  a  nation  in  which  the  Christian  reli- 
gion shall  appear,  not  as  a  strange  and  alien  rite,  but  as 
the  hereditary  faith  of  a  people  whose  fathers  are  invoked 


PREFACE.  IX 

at  its  altars,  and  the  memorials  of  whose  martyred  kindred 
surround  the  Cross  of  the  Saviour  !* 

The  history  of  the  missions  of  the  Jesuits  in  Paraguay 
offers  to  us  another  of  those  subjects  of  mingled  joy  and 
sorrow  with  which  the  annals  of  the  Church  abound.  If  it 
is  sweet  to  contemplate  the  well-nigh  paradise  upon  earth 
which,  even  upon  Protestant  testimony,  the  Jesuit  Fathers 
created  in  the  wilds  of  South  America,  in  the  'face  of  the 
bitter  opposition  which  the  avarice  and  jealousy  of  their 
countrymen  were  continually  throwing  in  their  way  during 
the  century  and  a  half  of  their  apostolic  labours  among 
the  Indians,  sad  indeed  is  it  at  last  to  witness  the  triumph 
of  the  evil  passions  of  men  calling  themselves  Catholics, 
in  the  expulsion  of  those  holy  religious  who  were  the 
guardian-angels  of  the  poor  savages  of  Paraguay. 

If  any  proof  were  required  of  the  incalculable  benefits 
which,  even  as  respects  their  temporal  prosperity,  the  Je- 
suits conferred  on  the  native  races  which  they  took  under 
their  protection  and  fostering  care,  it  may  be  read  in  the 
fact,  that  the  flourishing  settlements  which  they  founded 
dwindled  away  when  the  good  influences  which  had  nur- 
tured them  were  withdrawn.  The  tract  of  country  occu- 
pied by  their  missions  was  fertile  and  populous  under  their 
sway  in  the  middle  of  the  last  century ;  the  principal  re- 
ductions containing  each  30,000  souls,  the  smallest  5000 
or  6000 ;  whereas  before  the  year  1825,  the  whole  Indian 
population  of  those  regions  had  been  reduced  to  a  few 
thousand  inhabitants.  Nevertheless  it  is  asserted,  "  that 
no  part  of  the  interior  of  South  America  has  so  large  a  por- 
tion of  the  soil  under  cultivation  as  Paraguay.  The  abori- 
gines, too,  owing  to  the  unremitting  care  of  the  Jesuits  for 
a  period  of  eighty  years,  have  almost  entirely  adopted  the 
agriculture  and  the  arts  of  Europe,  as  far  as  they  are  fit  for 
a  nation  inhabiting  a  country  different  in  climate  and  other 
natural  features."t  If  such  be  the  results  of  the  Jesuit 
rule,  when  but  the  wreck  of  what  it  effected  remains, 
what  might  not  by  this  time  have  been  the  state  of  the 
Indian  Christian  population  of  the  interior  of  South  America? 
Incalculable  is  the  loss  to  the  unhappy  aborigines,  and  to 
America  herself.  Paraguay  formed  a  nucleus  of  civilisation, 
the  bounds  of  which  were  continually  widening  as  long  as 

*  Annals  of  the  Propagation  of  the  Faith,  vol.  x.  p.  21 5,  &c. 
+  Cyclopaedia  of  the  Society  for  the  Diffusion  of  Useful  Know- 
ledge,— article  "  Paraguay." 


X  PREFACE. 

the  Jesuits  were  suffered  to  prosecute  their  good  work  by 
the  conversion  and  humanisation  of  fresh  fierce  and  roving 
tribes. 

It  has  been  sometimes  made  matter,  if  not  of  reproach, 
at  least  of  detraction  from  the  praise  awarded  on  all  hands 
to  the  Jesuits  in  Paraguay,  that,  although  they  preserved 
their  neophytes  in  innocency  and  peace  while  they  abode 
among  them,  yet  that  they  kept  them,  like  children,  in 
leading-strings,  and  consequently  failed  to  communicate  to 
them  that  manly  strength  of  character  and  capability  of 
self-guidance  and  self-government  which  might  have  ena- 
bled them  to  stand  alone  when  their  first  teachers  and  go- 
vernors were  withdrawn.  Thus  the  very  circumstance  we 
have  alleged  in  testimony  of  the  beneficial  influence  exerted 
by  the  Jesuits,  is  adduced  as  a  proof  of  some  radical  defi- 
ciency in  their  system.  We  think,  however,  that  such  cen- 
sure has  been  expressed  without  due  consideration  of  the 
character  of  the  savage  races  with  whom  they  had  to  deal. 
Let  us  hear  the  Protestant  historian  Sismondi :  "  In  Ame- 
rica they  (the  Jesuits)  had  succeeded  in  persuading  savage 
tribes,  who  before  roamed  at  large  through  the  forests,  to 
adopt  a  fixed  habitation.  They  had  taught  them,  along 
with  the  first  elements  ot'  religion,  the  first  acts  of  civil  life  ; 
they  had  induced  them  to  build  villages  and  churches,  to 
cultivate  fields,  and  to  acquire  property The  mis- 
sionaries had  solved  that  exceedingly  difficult  problem,  in 
which  Europeans  have  ever  since  invariably  failed,  to  make 
savages  adopt  a  civilised  life.  Our  accumulated  experience 
ought  to  be  continually  increasing  our  admiration  for  the 
success  of  the  Jesuits.  They  employed  only  kindness, 
charity,  and  a  paternally  providential  care ;  others  have 
desired  to  educate  savages  by  instruction,  emulation,  com- 
merce, industry;  and  they  have  communicated  to  them  the 
passions  of  civilised  nations  before  the  reason  which  could 
control  and  the  discipline  which  could  restrain  them. 
Throughout  the  whole  world  the  contact  of  European  na- 
tions— English,  Dutch,  French — with  savages  has  caused 
them  to  melt  away  like  wax  before  a  blazing  fire.  In  the 
American  missions,  on  the  contrary,  the  red  race  multiplied 
rapidly  under  the  direction  of  the  Jesuits.  Their  Indians — 
so  it  has  been  said — were  only  big  children.  Grant  it ;  after 
their  expulsion,  the  Spaniards,  Portuguese,  English,  and 
French  have  made  tigers  of  them."* 

*  Histoire  des  Fran§ais,  t.  29,  c.  54. 


PREFACE.  XI 

That  the  Indians  were  but  great  children  we  have  no 
disposition  to  deny;  but  was  it  possible,  in  the  first  instance, 
to  make  any  thing  else  of  them  ?  It  must  be  remembered, 
that  the  red  men  of  the  forests  of  Paraguay  were  not,  like 
the  Japanese,  pagans  only  and  barbarians,  as  compared  to 
Europeans,  but  they  were  savages.  Between  the  state  of  the 
savage  and  the  mere  barbarian  the  difference  is  immense. 
The  disposition  of  the  savage,  in  its  most  favourable  speci- 
mens, exhibits  most  of  the  characteristics  of  childhood ;  nor 
did  the  Guarani  and  his  kindred  tribes  form  any  exception 
to  the  rule.  They  had  much  of  the  quickness  and  aptitude 
of  children — the  retentive  memories,  the  impressible  imagi- 
nations, the  pliable  faculties  ;  they  had  also  the  docility, 
simplicity,  and  confiding  faith.  Such,  at  least,  were  the 
good  qualities  which  religious  training  and  kindness  deve- 
loped in  the  soil  of  their  hearts  ;  for  in  their  wild  and 
pagan  state  the  characteristics  of  the  furious  beast  overlaid 
those  of  the  artless  child.  Now  we  have  seen  by  the  con- 
fession of  the  Protestant  Sismondi — and  his  assertion  is 
fully  borne  out  by  history — that  it  is  impossible  to  make 
the  savage  leap  the  intellectual  and  moral  space  which 
separates  him  from  the  civilised  man ;  brought  into  rude 
contact  with  him,  he  acquires  from  him  only  his  vices  and 
a  more  deadly  instrument  of  warfare.  He  obtains  his  gun- 
powder and  his  brandy  :  he  adds  drunkenness  to  ferocity. 
What  more  ?  He  perishes  away  before  the  white  man,  even 
where  the  latter  does  not  raise  his  hand  to  help  on  his  de- 
struction. 

Clearly  the  education  of  the  savage  is  a  difficult,  a  deli- 
cate, and  a  lengthened  task  :  it  is  not  the  work  of  a  day, 
nor  a  year,  nor  even  of  a  generation ;  and  if  the  Jesuits, 
who  had  effected  so  much,  had  not  as  yet  effected  more,  is 
the  blame  to  be  laid  upon  them  ?  Rather,  is  it  not  to  be 
attributed  to  those  who  arrested  a  process,  hitherto  so  suc- 
cessful, midway  in  its  course  ?  Is  it  not  much  more  fair  to 
suppose  that  they  who,  enlightened  by  that  true  wisdom 
and  penetration  which  divine  grace,  and  the  discipline  of  a 
holy  life,  alone  confer,  had  so  well  understood  the  human 
heart,  in  the  degraded  condition  of  savage  life,  as  to  induce 
them  to  take  the  first  and  most  difficult  steps  in  the  career 
of  civilisation,  would  have  also  been  fully  equal  to  their 
task  as  time  went  on,  and  have  adopted  whatever  modifica- 
tions had  been  needed  to  raise  the  Indian,  socially  aud 
intellectually,  to  the  level  of  his  European  brethren  ? 
The  signal  failure  which  has  accompanied  all  attempts  to 


Xll 


PREFACE. 


force  civilisation,  wholesale  and  full-grown,  as  it  were,  upon 
the  savage,  is  a  corroboration  of  the  wisdom  of  the  course 
they  adopted  with  such  brilliant  results — results  to  which 
alone  can,  in  their  measure,  be  compared  those  which  their 
brethren  achieved  in  California ;  a  work,  unhappily,  cut 
short  like  that  of  Paraguay  in  the  full  tide  of  its  success, 
and  ere  the  world  could  see  the  perfect  ripening  of  the  fruit 
which  these  matchless  husbandmen,  and  their  worthy  suc- 
cessors, the  sons  of  St.  Francis  and  St.  Dominic,  had  reared 
in  the  desert,  which  was  already  blossoming  like  a  rose 
under  their  cultivation  and  care. 

E.  H.  T. 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  I. 

FAGS 

Description  of  Japan ;  its  climate,  productions,  form  of  govern- 
ment. Manners  and  customs  of  the  people,  and  their  reli- 
gion. F.  Francis  Xavier  is  sought  at  Malacca  by  one  of  the 
natives ;  two  Jesuit  Fathers  go  to  Kangoxima ;  their  recep- 
tion ;  go  on  to  Miako,  the  capital ;  but  presently  return  to 
Amanguchi.  The  -work  of  conversion  begins.  F.  Francis 
is  invited  to  Bongo ;  success  with  the  king,  and  in  contro- 
versy with  bonzes;  is  recalled  to  India.  Other  Missionaries 
sent  in  his  place.  Two  bonzes  converted  in  Bongo.  Re- 
markable constancy  of  children.  The  first  martyr  of  the 
Japanese  Church,  a  female  slave  in  Firando.  The  Mission- 
aries re-assemble  in  the  kingdom  of  Bongo  ....      1 

CHAPTER  II. 

The  bonzes  of  Frenoxama.  Father  Villela's  voyage  to  Miako. 
Extraordinary  conversion  of  two  principal  bonzes.  Success 
at  Saccay.  The  Kumbo's  leve"e.  Nobunanga  restores  the 
Kumbo's  family  at  Miako,  and  destroys  the  bonzes  of  Fre- 
noxama ;  conspiracy  against  him  defeated ;  his  magnificent 
tournament ;  his  favourable  disposition  towards  Christianity    22 

CHAPTER  III. 

The  castle  of  Ekandono.  Sumitando,  king  of  Omura ;  his  zeal 
tempered  with  discretion.  Father  Torres  goes  to  Vocoxiuva, 
and  settles  theise.  Conversion  of  Sumitando  and  thirty 
nobles.  Conspiracy  against  him  defeated.  Jesuits  settled 
at  Nangasaki.  Conversion  of  the  king  of  Arima.  Christi- 
anity introduced  into  Goto.    The  king's  son  converted        .    39 


XVI  CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

TAOS 

Deaths  of  Fathers  Torres  and  Villela.  Father  Cabral  appointed 
Superior  of  the  Missions.  In  Omura  Christianity  is  formally 
recognised  as  the  religion  of  the  State.  Conversion  of  the 
second  son  and  the  nephew  of  the  King  of  Bongo.  The 
Queen  threatens  to  murder  the  Fathers.  Conversion  of  the 
King,  who  abdicates  in  favour  of  his  son.  Conversion  of  the 
King  of  Arima.  An  embassy  to  the  Pope  is  determined 
upon 59 

CHAPTER  V. 

Two  Japanese  princes  and  two  nobles  start  with  Father  Valignan 
for  Rome.  Their  arrival  at  Goa,  at  Lisbon,  at  Madrid,  and 
finally  at  Rome.  Their  reception  by  the  Pope.  Their  return 
to  Japan.  Important  changes  during  their  absence.  Death 
of  Nobunanga.  His  successor  begins  to  persecute  the  Chris- 
tians. Death  of  King  Francis  and  King  Bartholomew.  Exile 
of  Justo  Ucondono.  Decree  for  the  banishment  of  the  Je- 
suits  77 

CHAPTER  VL 

Cambacundono  sends  an  expedition  to  Corea  to  rid  himself  of 
his  Christian  subjects.  Recal  of  Justo  Ucondono.  Death  of 
Con3tantine.  Arrival  of  Franciscan  missionaries.  Their  im- 
prudent conduct.  The  first  bishop  of  Japan  arrives.  Mar- 
tyrdom of  Franciscan  fathers,  three  Jesuits,  and  two  children 
at  Nangasaki.  Death  of  Cambacundono.  Execution  of 
Augustine,  and  of  the  Queen  of  Tango 93 

CHAPTER  VII. 

Persecution  of  the  Church  in  the  kingdom  of  Figo.  Charity  of 
the  Bishop  and  Jesuit  Fathers.  Martyrdom  of  Japanese 
nobles,  with  their  wives  and  families.  Persecution  in  Firando 
and  Arima.    Heroic  martyrdoms  of  children  and  others      .  11* 

CHAPTER  VIII. 

Treachery  of  Dutch  Protestants.  General  persecution  of  the 
Christians.    Heroic  conduct  of  Christian  virgins.   The  Jesuits 


CONTENTS.  XVU 

PAGE 

and  others  banished  from  Miako.  Exile  and  death  of  Justo 
Ucondono.  More  fierce  and  universal  persecution.  Particu- 
lars of  the  sufferings  of  the  martyrs  at  Cochinotzu,  Nanga- 
saki,  Miako,  and  elsewhere 135 


CHAPTER  IX. 

Sufferings  of  the  clergy.  Diminution  of  their  number,  and 
consequently  of  the  Christians  generally.  Martyrdom  of 
Fathers  Paul,  Angelis,  and  others ;  some  at  the  stake,  others 
in  freezing  water,  and  others  by  unheard-of  tortures.  The 
sulphurous  waters  of  Ungen.  Death  of  the  Xoguno.  He 
is  succeeded  by  a  still  more  cruel  tyrant.  Treachery  of  the 
Dutch.  Portuguese  merchants  forbidden  to  land ;  murder 
of  Portuguese  ambassadors.  Last  efforts  of  Jesuit  mission- 
aries, who  are  all  martyred.  Final  extinction  of  Christianity. 
Present  state  of  Japan l£5 


CHAPTER  I. 

Description  of  Japan  ;  its  climate,  productions,  form 
of  government.  Manners  and  customs  of  the 
people,  and  their  religion.  F.  Francis  Xavier  is 
sought  at  Malacca  by  one  of  the  natives ;  two 
Jesuit  Fathers  go  to  Kangoxima ;  their  reception ; 
go  on  to  Miako,  the  capital ;  but  presently  return 
to  Amanguchi.  The  work  of  conversion  begins. 
F.  Francis  is  invited  to  Bongo ;  success  with  the 
king,  and  in  controversy  with  bonzes;  is  recalled  to  India. 
Other  Missionaries  sent  in  his  place.  Two  bonzes  converted  in 
Bongo.  Remarkable  constancy  of  children.  The  first  martyr 
of  the  Japanese  Church,  a  female  slave  in  Firando.  The  Mis- 
sionaries re-assemble  in  the  kingdom  of  Bongo. 


^HPSf  HE  kingdom  of  Japan,  situated  on  the 

rh    ffiSg  (T    most  eastern  part  of  the  coast  of  Asia,  is 

C\j611  ^ — ^11  composed  of  many  islands,  said  to  have 

been  discovered  by  Fernandez  Pinto  and 

his    companions   in   1542,   thoug-h   various 

other  navigators  of  that  adventurous  period 

likewise  lay  claim  to  the  discovery  as  their 

own.     These  islands  are  described  as  very 

rugg-ed,    interspersed    with    barren    tracts, 

deep  valleys,  and  lofty  mountains,  many  of 

which  are  covered  with  snow  all  the  year 

round.     The  climate  varies  from  excessive 

heat  in  summer  to  as  intense  a  cold  in  winter.     Some 

of  the  mountains  are  volcanic,  and  mineral  spring's  are 

abundant ;  those  of  Ung-en,  of  which  such  fearful  use 


JAPAN. 


was  made  in  times  of  persecution,  being-  of  the  tempe- 
rature of  boiling  water.  Japan  likewise  possesses  gold, 
silver,  and  copper  mines,  with  abundance  of  coal,  brim* 
stone,  and  naphtha. 

The  country  is  divided  into  sixty  or  seventy  small 
states,  governed  by  kings,  who,  in  their  turn,  are  subject 
to  the  double  authority  of  the  Dairi  and  Kumbo-Sama ; 
the  first  being  at  the  head  of  the  spiritual,  the  second 
of  the  temporal  sovereignty  of  Japan.  For  many  hun- 
dred years  the  former  united  both  these  offices  in  his 
own  person;  but  in  1585  one  of  his  generals  forcibly 
divided  them  with  him,  taking  to  himself  the  more 
tangible  authority  comprised  in  the  dignity  of  Kumbo, 
while  he  left  to  his  late  chief  just  so  much  of  its  shadow 
as  a  spiritual  supremacy  under  such  circumstances  might 
be  supposed  to  contain.  From  that  time  the  Dairi  has 
been  practically  a  cipher  in  his  own  dominions :  he 
dwells,  indeed,  in  a  magnificent  palace,  and  is  sur- 
rounded by  such  homage  and  reverence  as  might  be 
offered  to  a  god ;  but  the  actual  power  is  exercised  by 
the  Kumbo,  who  makes  and  unmakes  the  kings  of  the 
various  petty  states  at  his  pleasure;  for  though  their 
office  seems  to  be  partly  hereditary,  yet  since  they  are 
accountable  to  him  for  all  their  actions,  he  can  always 
either  transfer  them  to  another  kingdom,  or  deprive 
them  of  royalty  altogether.  Death,  however,  is  the 
more  usual  punishment  inflicted  on  them  for  any  mis- 
conduct, whether  real  or  imaginary,  of  which  they  have 
been  guilty.  The  Kumbo  has  only  to  sign  the  order 
for  the  execution,  and  the  culprit  considers  it  a  point 
of  honour,  not  only  to  submit  without  a  murmur,  but 
to  escape  the  hands  of  the  headsman  by  inflicting  the 
sentence  on  himself.  As  soon  as  he  receives  it  from 
the  officer  appointed  to  superintend  its  execution,  ho 
invites  all  his  friends  and  acquaintances  to  a  feast,  after 
which  he  makes  a  farewell  speech,  draws  his  sword, 
and  inflicts  a  first  wound  upon  himself, — the  deed  being 
generally  completed  by  a  favourite  relative  or  confi- 
dential servant.     This  mode  of  death  is  considered  so 


CH.  I.j  JAPAN.  3 

honourable,  and  therefore  so  desirable,  that  the  very 
children  are  instructed  to  use  their  weapons  gracefully 
for  the  purpose ;  and  the  habit  of  suicide  thus  induced 
was  probably  one  of  the  severest  temptations  of  the 
Christian  martyrs,  who  even  while  exercising*  that 
highest  degree  of  courage  which  consists  in  passive 
endurance,  were  yet  often  taunted  with  cowardice  for 
not  shortening-  their  sufferings  by  a  voluntary  death. 

As  a  nation,  the  Japanese  resemble  the  Chinese,  not 
only  in  face  and  figure,  but  likewise  in  many  of  their 
customs  and  traditions.  They  are  said  to  be  intelligent, 
brave,  and  honest;  but,  on  the  other  hand,  they  are 
proud,  cruel,  vindictive,  and  luxurious, — covetous  of 
honours  and  of  wealth,  and  intolerant  of  poverty,  which 
being  considered  as  a  punishment  inflicted  by  the  gods, 
always  presupposes  crime  in  him  who  endures  it.  Poly- 
gamy is  permitted  and  practised  to  a  great  extent :  the 
women  are  frequently  bought,  and  may  at  any  time  be 
returned  after  marriage ;  an  occurrence  which  neither 
entails  disgrace  on  the  one  party,  nor  is  considered  sin 
in  the  other.  In  religious  opinions  they  were  divided, 
at  the  time  to  which  our  history  belongs,  into  several 
sects ;  one  of  which  believed  in  the  existence  of  a  Su- 
preme Being  ruling  over  innumerable  inferior  deities, 
towards  whom,  as  his  deputies  in  the  affairs  of  men, 
its  worship  was  more  especially  directed.  The  up- 
holders of  this  opinion  professed  likewise  the  immortal- 
ity of  the  soul,  and  the  fact  of  reward  and  punishment 
after  death ;  dogmas  most  emphatically  denied  by  the 
opposite  party,  which  consisted  chiefly  of  the  great  men 
about  court,  to  whom  the  idea,  of  future  retribution 
might  probably  be  any  thing  but  agreeable.  The 
priests,  however,  of  all  these  various  sects  were  called 
indiscriminately  bonzes.  These  men  lived  in  commu- 
nities, and  affected  great  apparent  sanctity  of  life ;  but 
in  private  they  yielded  to  every  species  of  debauchery 
and  excess, — a  fact  amply  attested  by  the  confessions  of 
such  of  their  number  as  embraced  Christianity,  and 
well  known  even  to  the  heathens  themselves,  who  vet 


4:  JAPAN. 

submitted  to  their  extortions  from  a  superstitious  belief 
in  their  influence  with  the  gods. 

This  short  sketch  of  the  belief  and  practice  of  the 
Japanese  will  suffice  to  show  how  repugnant  to  all  their 
preconceived  habits  and  ideas  were  the  maxims  of  the 
Gospel.  To  men  accustomed  to  look  upon  suicide  as 
heroic  courage,  and  to  reckon  riches  and  pleasures  as 
though  they  were  virtues,  the  poverty,  meekness,  and 
chastity  inculcated  by  the  precepts  of  Christianity 
would  have  been  preached  in  vain  without  that  especial 
gift  of  mission  which  is  the  prerogative  of  the  Catholic 
Church, — the  mark  by  which  you  may  know  her  among 
thousands,  and  that  which  Christ  Himself  conferred 
upon  her  in  those  memorable  words  addressed  to  her 
first  founders :  "  Go  and  teach  all  nations,  baptising 
them  in  the  name  of  the  Father,  and  of  the  Son, 
and  of  the  Holy  Ghost.'7  Without  this  crowning  gift, 
Xavier  himself,  for  all  his  zeal,  his  eloquence,  his  piety 
and  learning,  and  though  his  efforts  had  been  backed 
by  the  treasures  of  the  Indies,  must  infallibly  have 
failed.  But  with  it,  poor,  unknown,  a  stranger,  and  in 
rags,  he  succeeded  in  preaching  the  Cross  of  Christ 
before  the  thrones  of  the  most  luxurious  monarchs  of 
the  East ;  and  the  blood-stained  annals  of  the  Church 
which  he  founded  bear  witness  to  the  deep  conviction, 
the  constancy  and  courage  of  those  who  at  his  bidding 
renounced  the  pride  and  luxury  and  false  wisdom  of  the 
world,  to  embrace  the  folly  of  the  Cross  by  becoming 
the  servants  of  a  crucified  God." 

Wonderful  are  the  ways  of  the  Almighty,  and  in- 
scrutable as  wonderful !  The  conversion  of  China,  for 
which  the  Apostle  of  the  Indies  had  so  long  and  so  ar- 
dently sighed,  was  denied  to  his  prayers ;  while  that  of 
Japan,  of  which  apparently  he  had  never  even  dreamed, 
was  given  to  him  unasked.  China  was  the  object  of 
all  his  wishes  and  aspirations, — the  promised  land  of  his 
spiritual  ambition.  It  was  in  his  dreams  by  night  and 
his  thoughts  by  day, — the  subject  alike  of  his  penance 
and  his  prayers ;  when  a  young  Japanese,  tormented  by 


CH.  I.J  JAPAN.  5 

remorse  of  conscience  for  a  crime  committed  years  ago, 
and  forgotten  probably  by  every  body  but  himself,  ar- 
rived at  Malacca,  where  the  Saint  then  was,  and  throw- 
ing himself  at  his  feet,  besought  of  him  that  peace  and 
pardon  which  his  native  bonzes  had  been  unable  to 
bestow.  The  great  heart  of  Francis  exulted  at  the 
prospect  of  winning  another  empire  to  the  banner  of  his 
Divine  Lord ;  while  his  vivid  faith  saw  in  the  sinner  who 
had  thus  sought  him  from  afar  a  direct  ambassador 
from  Heaven,  which  had  doubtless  pursued  this  youth 
with  the  fear  of  retribution,  not  for  his  sake  alone,  but 
also  to  effect  the  conversion  of  the  idolatrous  nation 
represented  in  his  person. 

Frequent  conversation  with  Anger, — for  such  was  the 
name  of  the  Japanese, — only  confirmed  him  in  this  first 
opinion.  The  deep  feeling*,  the  tender  piety,  and  above 
all,  the  earnest  pleadings  of  this  poor  heathen  in  favour 
of  his  countrymen,  that  they  also  might  be  enlightened 
by  the  gift  of  faith,  were  arguments  which  the  zeal  of 
Francis  could  not  resist :  but  he  had  to  contend  with 
innumerable  obstacles  before  he  could  put  his  project 
into  execution;  and  it  was  not  until  two  years  after- 
wards, that,  on  the  Feast  of  the  Assumption  (1549),  he 
and  his  chosen  companion,  Father  Cosmas  de  Torres, 
landed  at  Kangoxima,  the  birthplace  of  Anger,  who, 
under  his  new  name  of  Paul  de  St.  Foi,  accompanied 
the  fathers  as  their  guide  and  interpreter  to  the  nations 
of  Japan. 

By  a  sing*ular  arrangement  of  Divine  Providence, 
stress  of  weather  had  compelled  the  captain  to  put  in 
at  this  port, — the  only  one  in  the  whole  kingdom  where 
they  could  have  hoped  for  a  favourable  reception  ;  and 
here  their  first  success  was  more  than  enough  to  con- 
firm their  most  sanguine  expectations.  Not  many 
hours  elapsed  before  the  Japanese  convert  was  sent  for 
to  the  palace,  and  questioned  concerning  the  strangers 
whom  he  had  not  only  brought  to  the  city,  but  lodged 
in  his  own  house.  Paul  was  in  the  first  fervour  of  his 
conversion,  and  he  answered  by  a  vivid  explanation  of 


0  JAPAN. 

the  mysteries  of  the  Christian  faith,  winding-  up  his  ac- 
count of  the  Incarnation  by  exhibiting"  a  picture  of  the 
Blessed  Mother  and  her  Divine  Child,  which  he  had 
brought  with  him  from  the  Indies.  Both  the  earnest 
manner  of  the  convert  and  the  miracles  which  he  an- 
nounced, had  already  touched  them  with  awe  and  wonder ; 
but  when  they  looked  upon  this  picture,  which  was  to 
them  as  the  visible  illustration  of  his  mysterious  words, 
such  an  untold  reverence  filled  their  hearts,  that  all 
bowed  down  before  it, — king-  and  queen  and  courtly 
heathens  involuntarily  doing'  it  homage  on  their  knees. 

Then  they  naturally  desired  to  know  more  of  the 
strange  bonzes,  from  whom  he  had  heard  of  these 
wonders ;  and  the  best  part  of  the  following-  nig-ht 
was  spent  by  Francis  at  the  palace,  explaining-  the 
articles  of  the  faith.  Both  the  king-  and  queen  listened 
to  him  with  delight;  they  were  never  weary  of  express- 
ing- their  astonishment  at  the  charity  which  had  brought 
him  so  far  for  their  salvation ;  and  the  permission  he 
craved  for  the  free  preaching  of  the  Gospel  was  readily 
granted.  Paul  had  already  converted  his  mother,  wife, 
and  children ;  but  after  these,  the  first  person  baptised 
by  Francis  was  a  poor  man,  who,  under  the  name  of 
Bernard,  soon  became  illustrious  by  his  virtues ;  as  if 
God  wished  to  confound  the  pride  and  mammon-wor- 
ship of  the  Japanese,  by  taking  His  first-fruits  from 
that  very  class  which  they  most  hated  and  despised. 
Other  converts  speedily  began  to  flock  to  the  standard 
of  the  cross ;  but  the  bonzes  had  already  taken  the 
alarm.  A  religion  which  preached  poverty  as  its 
noblest  possession,  and  chastity  as  the  highest  virtue  of 
the  human  heart,  would  soon,  if  suffered  to  succeed, 
have  ruined  their  credit  and  retrenched  their  revenues  ; 
so  they  raised  such  a  storm  at  court  against  it,  that 
Francis  was  fain  to  shake  the  dust  from  off  his  feet,  and 
to  seek  a  less  ungrateful  soil  wherein  to  sow  the  seed 
of  the  Divine  Word. 

Leaving  the  little  handful  of  Christians  already 
made  under  the  guidance  of  Paul,  he  and  Father  Torres, 


CH.  I.]  JAPAN.  7 

with  liis  poor  convert  Bernard,  took  the  way  to  Firando. 
His  heart  was  yearning-  towards  Miako,  the  capital  of 
the  whole  empire,  and  the  resort  of  all  the  great  and 
learned  of  the  nation.  This,  he  thought,  would  be  the 
best  point  from  whence  to  diffuse  the  Gospel  through- 
out the  various  cities  and  kingdoms  subject  to  its  con- 
trol. Hither  therefore  he  directed  his  steps,  in  the 
depth  of  winter,  without  guide  or  money,  ill-clad,  and 
with  only  a  little  parched  rice,  which  the  faithful  Ber- 
nard carried  in  the  wide  sleeve  of  his  oriental  garment, 
for  his  means  of  subsistence  on  the  road. 

Mountains  were  scaled,  rivers  forded,  and  forests 
traversed,  with  the  indomitable  resolution  which  was 
so  especially  the  characteristic  of  the  Saint.  Shelter 
was  every  where  denied  them  by  the  inhospitable  Ja- 
panese ;  and  they  often  lost  their  way  amid  the  pathless 
wilds  through  which  the}'  were  compelled  to  wander. 
Once,  when  they  were  completely  entangled  in  a  wood, 
they  were  overtaken  by  a  horseman,  who  agreed  to 
conduct  them  through  it,  on  condition  that  Francis 
should  carry  the  box  which  contained  his  luggage. 
Such  an  offer  suited  too  well  the  humility  of  the  Saint 
to  be  rejected,  and  he  joyfully  followed  his  guide,  who 
trotted  on  through  thorn  and  thicket  at  a  rapid  pace, 
regardless  of,  or  perhaps  even  rejoicing  in,  the  sufferings 
of  his  victim.  The  livelong  day  was  spent  in  this  un- 
natural exertion ;  and  when  towards  evening  his  com- 
panions came  up  to  the  place  where  the  horseman  had 
finally  left  the  Father,  they  found  him  lying  on  the 
ground,  his  legs  so  swollen  and  his  feet  so  cruelly  cut 
and  bruised,  that  they  were  oblig'ed  to  rest  for  several 
days  before  they  could  continue  their  journey. 

Miako  was  gained  at  last,  with  its  stately  streets 
regularly  crossing-  each  other  at  right  angles,  its  six 
hundred  thousand  inhabitants,  and  its  five  hundred 
temples  dedicated  to  the  worship  of  the  idols; — a  great 
and  populous  city,  seated  in  a  spacious  plain,  sheltered 
and  half-surrounded  by  an  amphitheatre  of  hills.  The 
capital  of  a  mighty  empire,  it  was  the  centre  alike  of 


8  JAPAN. 

religion,  of  learning-,  and  of  commerce,  in  Japan.  The 
palace  of  the  Dairi  formed  a  kind  of  academy  for  the 
cultivation  of  science  and  the  fine  arts;  and  the  city 
itself  was  famed  for  its  manufactures  of  silk  and  porce- 
lain, for  its  highly-refined  copper,  well-tempered  steel, 
and  its  works  in  g-old  and  silver;  while  every  coin 
in  circulation  throughout  the  Archipelago  was  struck 
at  the  imperial  mintage  of  Miako.  To  win  such  a 
city  to  the  empire  of  Jesus  Christ  would  have  been 
truly  an  achievement  worthy  of  Francis ;  and  yet 
his  first  reception  in  it  might  hardly  have  seemed  to 
hold  out  any  hope  of  reward  for  the  perils  he  had  en- 
countered in  its  behalf.  Rebuffs,  however,  for  the  sake 
of  Christ,  are  not  merely  precious  for  His  love's  sake 
in  the  eyes  of  His  saints,  but  are  likewise  coveted  by 
them  as  an  earnest  of  future  success  in  every  enterprise 
undertaken  for  His  glory ;  and  of  these  Francis  drank 
freely  in  the  city  of  the 'Dairi.  On  the  road  hither  he 
had  been  twice  nearly  stoned  to  death  by  the  idolaters, 
against  whose  superstitions  he  had  inveighed ;  but  here 
he  was  met  by  that  cold  contempt,  which  is  harder  to 
bear  than  open  violence  to  the  loving  heart.  His  poverty 
precluded  him  from  an  audience  either  with  the  Dairi 
or  the  Kumbo ;  neither  rich  nor  poor  would  listen  to  his 
sermons ;  and  it  was  all  in  vain  that,  with  indefatigable 
perseverance,  he  wandered  up  and  down  the  city,  and 
through  the  towns  and  villages  beyond  its  suburbs, 
preaching  and  catechising-  from  morning  until  night, 
and  crying  out,  in  the  excess  of  his  tenderness  and  love, 
"  Deos,  Deos,  Deos  !"*  until  the  very  children  learned 
the  word,  and  used  to  hoot  it  after  him  in  derision  as 
he  passed. 

Fourteen  days  were  thus  spent  at  Miako ;  on  the 
fifteenth  he  turned  his  back   upon  the  haughty  city, 

*  Francis  always  expressed  himself  by  the  Portuguese  word 
Deos ;  fearing  that  if  he  employed  any  of  those  in  common 
use  among  the  Japanese,  they  might  confound  the  idea  of  the 
Divinity  with  that  of  their  Kami  and  Chadotschi,  the  idols  to 
which  they  were  generally  applied. 


CH.  I.]  JAPAN.  9 

and  passed  on  to  Amanguchi,  a  town  not  far  distant, 
and  taking  its  name  from  the  kingdom  over  which  it 
presided.  Mistress  of  some  of  the  most  productive 
silver  mines  then  known  in  the  world,  and  with  the  re- 
putation of  being  the  richest  and  most  dissolute  city  in 
Japan,  the  Saint  had  vainly  preached  to  its  inhabitants 
on  his  way  to  Miako ;  yet  now,  on  his  return,  he  had 
better  success.-  The  Portuguese  merchants  (who,  to 
their  honour  be  it  recorded,  were  ever  the  most  generous 
and  zealous  promoters  of  every  effort  to  christianise 
Japan,)  procured  him  an  audience  with  the  king ;  and 
he,  whether  from  feelings  of  admiration,  or  in  order  to 
put  his  guest's  disinterestedness  to  the  test,  offered  the 
Saint  a  large  sum  of  money.  Francis  refused  it ;  and 
on  being  asked  what  the  king  could  offer  that  would  be 
more  acceptable  to  him,  "  Nothing,"  he  answered,  "  ex- 
cept leave  to  preach  the  true  God  in  your  dominions." 

Charmed  with  an  integrity  to  which  he  could  find 
no  parallel  among  the  native  bonzes,  the  king  not  only 
granted  this  request,  but  likewise  gave  a  place  of  resi- 
dence to  himself  and  his  companions,  with  a  piece  of 
land  for  the  erection  of  a  church.  Still  the  work  of 
conversion  did  not  progTess.  Courtly  favour  might 
give  leave  for  the  sowing  of  the  seed,  it  could  not  force 
it  to  take  root  and  blossom ;  and  though,  men  flocked 
to  Francis  by  night  and  day,  and  though  they  filled 
the  house  in  which  he  lived,  and  followed  him  through 
the  streets,  and  crowded  round  him  and  his  companions 
whenever  they  preached  in  public,  yet  it  was  evident 
that  they  were  prompted  more  by  curiosity  than 
devotion.  The  fathers  were  continually  harassed  by 
questions  that  were  proposed  solely  with  a  view  to 
affront  or  perplex  them,  and  not  accompanied  by  any 
desire  for  more  serious  instruction ;  until  at  length  that 
change  of  heart,  which  neither  the  smiles  of  the  king 
nor  the  eloquence  of  Xavier  had  been  able  to  accomplish, 
was  effected  by  the  grace  of  God  rewarding*  an  act  of 
heroic  humility  on  the  part  of  one  of  the  companions  of 
the  latter,  a  brother  of  the  Society  of  Jesus,  of  the  name 


10  JAPAN. 

of  Fernandez.  This  holy  man  was  preaching-  in  one  of 
the  most  frequented  parts  of  the  city,  when  a  person  in 
the  crowd  spat  derisively  in  his  face.  The  spectators 
were  indignant  at  this  wanton  brutality;  but  Fernandez 
himself  merely  took  out  his  handkerchief,  wiped  his 
face,  and  then,  without  betraying  the  slightest  emotion, 
proceeded  with  his  sermon.  It  was  but  the  forbearance 
of  a  moment;  yet  it  proved  to  be  the  germ  from  whence 
numberless  conversions  were  afterwards  to  spring.  A 
nobleman,  who  happened  to  be  present,  sought  Francis 
on  the  spot,  declaring  that  a  religion  which  inspired 
such  patience  under  injury  could  only  have  been  taught 
by  heaven.  Many  others  followed  his  example;  and  in 
the  course  of  the  ensuing  year  no  fewer  than  three 
thousand  of  the  natives  were  instructed  and  received 
baptism  at  the  hands  of  the  Saint. 

By  this  time,  the  king  of  Bongo,  who  was  destined 
hereafter  to  play  so  considerable  a  part  in  the  history  of 
the  Church  of  Japan,  had  heard  of  the  stranger  bonze 
whom  Portuguese  ships  had  brought  to  his  shores ;  and 
being  anxious  to  know  something  more  accurately  about 
the  wonderful  religion  he  had  come  so  far  to  announce, 
sent  him  a  pressing  invitation  to  the  capital  of  his  king- 
dom. Nothing  could  have  been  more  acceptable  to  the 
zeal  of  Francis,  ever  on  fire  to  carry  farther  and  far- 
ther still  the  standard  of  his  Lord :  he  left  Father  Cos- 
mas  de  Torres  to  supply  his  place  at  Amanguchi,  took 
a  tender  leave  of  the  new  Christians  there,  and  set  out 
for  Funay,  the  capital  of  Bongo,  carrying  a  marble 
altar-stone,  a  chalice,  and  other  articles  for  the  cele- 
bration of  Mass,  in  a  knapsack  on  his  shoulders.  The 
Portuguese  merchants  who  resided  in  the  city  received 
him  with  royal  honours ;  and  as  soon  as  the  king  heard 
the  guns  which  they  fired  to  salute  him,  he  despatched 
a  second  letter  of  invitation,  of  which  the  following  is  a 
portion : 

"  Father  bonze  of  Chmchicogin  (the  Japanese  word 
for  Portugal),  may  your  happy  arrival  in  my  estate 
be  as  pleasing  to  your  God   as  are  the  praises    of 


CH.  I.]  JAPAN.  11 

his  Saints.  God  hath  not  made  me  worthy  to  com- 
mand you ;  so  I  only  earnestly  request  you  to  come 
before  the  rising-  of  the  sun.  Meantime,  prostrate 
before  your  God,  whom  I  acknowledge  for  the  God  of 
all  gods,  I  beg  Him  to  make  known  to  the  haughty  of 
the  world  how  much  your  poor  and  holy  life  is  pleasing* 
to  Him,  to  the  end  that  the  children  of  the  flesh  may 
no  longer  be  deceived  by  the  false  promises  of  the 
earth.  Send  me  news  of  your  health,  that  joy  may 
give  me  a  good  night's  repose,  until  the  cocks  awaken 
me  with  the  welcome  news  of  your  visit." 

This  curious  epistle,  which,  with  all  its  eastern 
strangeness  of  phraseology  and  flattery,  contains  so 
much  of  Christian  truth,  that  it  suggests  itself  to  us  as 
an  inspiration  from  above,  was  carried  by  a  prince  of 
the  blood  royal,  with  thirty  lords  in  his  train.     '" 

They  were  conducted  on  board  the  ship  where 
Francis  was  now  staying  ;  and  when  they  beheld  the 
homage  which  every  one  paid  to  him,  they  could  not 
resist  the  conclusion,  "that  the  God  of  the  Portu- 
guese must  needs  be  great  indeed,  since  this  bonze, 
poor  though  he  was,  could  yet  command  the  respect  of 
the  wealthiest  of  his  nation."  After  these  envoys  had 
performed  their  commission  and  departed,  the  Portu- 
guese besought  Francis  to  allow  of  their  accompany- 
ing him  with  due  honours  to  the  palace;  urging  the 
necessity  both  of  showing  this  proud  people  the  reverence 
Christians  ever  felt  for  their  priests,  and  also  of  con- 
founding the  bonzes,  who  had  every  where  described 
him  as  a  miserable  wretch,  clothed  in  rags,  and  covered 
with  vermin.  Xavier  was  most  unwilling  to  part  even 
with  the  externals  of  his  beloved  poverty,  but  at  length 
humbly  yielded  his  own  opinions  to  their  very  strong 
desire;  and  the  next  morning  they  set  out  in  grand 
procession  from  the  ship,  the  boat  which  brought  them 
being  lined  with  the  fairest  China  tapestry,  and  a  band  of 
music  playing  until  they  reached  the  shore.  They  were 
met  at  the  landing  by  a  deputation  from  the  king;  but 
Francis  refused  the  litter  which  had  been  provided  for 


12  JAPAN. 

his  accommodation,  and  the}'  all  went  on  foot  to  the 
palace;  the  captain  of  the  ship  walking-  bare-headed 
before  him,  and  five  Portuguese  following-.  One  of 
these  bore  a  book  (the  catechism)  in  a  white  satin  bag1 5 
another,  a  fair  picture  (as  the  old  chronicler  calls  it)  of 
our  Lady,  wrapt  up  in  red  damask;  a  third,  the  priest's 
slippers;  a  fourth,  his  cane;  and  the  last  a  magnificent 
parasol,  such  as  in  Japan  is  used  only  for  persons  of  the 
highest  distinction. 

In  this  order  they  proceeded  through  the  city;  and 
being*  met  at  the  palace-gates  by  the  captain  of  the 
king's  guard  at  the  head  of  five  hundred  men,  were 
conducted  into  a  large  hall,  filled  with  Japanese  nobles 
in  their  richest  dresses.  Here  a  little  child,  who  had 
been  appointed  to  the  office,  being-  led  forward  by 
a  venerable  old  man.  saluted  Francis,  and  bade  him 
welcome  to  the  kingdom ;  after  which  he  led  him  to 
another  apartment,  to  receive  a  similar  compliment  from 
•the  young-  sons  of  the  nobility;  and  from  thence,  by  a 
terrace  made  beautiful  and  fragrant  by  the  bloom  of 
its  orang-e-trees,  to  a  gallery  hung-  with  tapestry  and 
curious  paintings,  where  the  highest  nobles  of  the  land 
were  in  waiting*  to  receive  him.  Two  steps  more,  and 
he  was  in  the  presence  of  the  king.  Xavier  instantly 
prostrated ;  but,  to  the  astonishment  of  all  spectators, 
the  king-  himself  bowed  down  before  him,  and  then 
raising-  him  up,  made  him  sit  beside  him.  Before  the 
interview  was  concluded,  Francis  was  invited  to  dine 
with  his  majesty;  and  strange  indeed  it  must  have  been, 
in  a  country  where  eticpiette  is  so  jealously  preserved, 
to  see  this  poor  strang-er  seated  at  the  king's  own  table, 
while  the  native  nobles  and  the  wealthier  Portuguese 
remained  in  the  royal  presence,  according  to  custom, 
humbly  on  their  knees. 

From  that  day  he  became  a  frequent  visitor  at  the 
palace ;  for  the  king,  admiring  the  virtues  which  lie 
preached  while  he  practised,  and  practised  while  he 
preached,  delighted  in  his  presence  and  holy  conver- 
sation.    Here,  however,  as  at  Kangoxima,  the  bonze? 


CH.  I.]  JAPAN.  V6 

were  speedily  roused  to  a  sense  of  the  danger  threaten- 
ing1 their  institutions.  At  first  the}'  tried  to  av  aken 
the  superstitions  terrors  of  the  king-;  but  finding  that 
he  only  laughed  at  their  prognostications  of  evil,  they 
shut  up  all  the  temples  of  the  gods,  and  excited  the 
people  to  rise  against  the  Portuguese,  whom  they 
taught  them  to  consider  as  the  cause  of  this  necessary 
precaution.  The  latter,  alarmed  for  their  personal 
safety,  took  refuge  on  board  their  ship;  but  Francis 
positively  refused  to  follow  their  example.  Nothing 
could  induce  this  faithful  shepherd  to  abandon  the  flock 
which  he  had  so  recently  gathered  into  the  fold  of  his 
Lord ;  so  the  ship  put  off  to  sea  without  him ;  but  the 
first  panic  was  no  sooner  over  than  they  were  seized 
with  remorse  at  having  left  him  in  such  imminent  peril, 
and  the  captain  returned  alone  to  seek  him  on  shore. 
There,  indeed,  he  found  him,  in  a  poor  hut,  surrounded 
by  all  his  faithful  Christians,  who  were  well  content 
to  die,  provided  they  might  do  so  in  the  very  arms  as 
it  were  of  their  spiritual  father ;  but  to  all  the  well- 
meant  exhortations  of  the  Portuguese,  Xavier  only 
answered,  "  God  forbid  I  should  abandon  the  flock  ■ 
which  He  has  given  to  my  care.  You  hesitate  to  leave 
me,  thinking  yourself  bound  to  save  your  passengers  at 
all  risks;  and  shall  I  be  less  careful  for  souls  redeemed 
by  the  precious  blood  of  Jesus  Christ  X  or  what  re- 
proaches may  I  not  expect  from  Him,  if  I  forsake  them 
at  a  moment  when  they  are  in  danger  of  losing  their 
lives,  and  yet  worse,  their  faith?  You  say  you  love 
me,  and  I  believe  you ;  yet  you  almost  seem  to  contra- 
dict your  words  when  you  try  to  rob  me  of  the  mar- 
tyr's crown,  which  I  have  come  from  the  farthest 
ends  of  the  earth  to  seek.1'  The  Father  lifted  his  eyes 
to  heaven,  and  pronounced  these  words  with  so  much 
earnestness  and  devotion,  that  the  other  could  not 
refrain  from  tears.  He  returned  to  the  ship,  and  told 
his  crew  they  might  do  as  they  liked,  but  for  his  own 
part,  he  would  live  and  die  with  the  man  of  God. 
There  was  not  a  man  among  them  but  instantly  sub- 


14  JAPAN. 

scribed  to  this  resolution.  The  ship  put  back  into  har- 
bour ;  but  almost  before  they  could  reach  the  land,  the 
king-  had  taken  such  vigorous  measures  with  the  rioters, 
that  peace  and  order  were  soon  restored. 

Foiled  in  this  attempt,  the  bonzes  next  had  re- 
course to  other  measures  5  they  petitioned  the  king-  for 
a  public  disputation  with  the  stranger  on  their  respec- 
tive religions.  It  was  granted ;  and  after  a  controversy 
of  five  days,  the  king  declared  from  his  throne,  with 
the  unanimous  consent  of  the  whole  assembly,  that  the 
religion  of  the  stranger  bonzes  was  more  conformable 
to  truth,  reason,  and  good  sense,  than  that  of  their 
opponents.  These  last  retired,  uttering  a  thousand  im- 
precations against  the  prince,  who,  on  his  part,  utterly 
regardless  of  their  indignation,  conducted  Xavier,  with 
every  demonstration  of  respect  and  esteem,  and  amid 
the  plaudits  of  the  multitude,  back  to  his  abode. 

The  Portuguese  were  now  ready  to  sail ;  and 
Francis,  who  had  received  letters  requiring  his  presence 
in  the  Indies,  repaired  to  the  palace  to  take  leave  of 
the  king-.  He  had  often  bravely  and  openly  reproved 
that  monarch  for  the  wickedness  of  his  private  life,  and 
now  he  could  not  part  from  him  for  ever  without  re- 
newing his  protest,  and  warning  him  of  the  danger  he  in- 
curred by  persisting  in  his  vices.  He  spoke  with  the  fer- 
vent energy  of  a  saint,  and  with  the  courage  which  only 
a  saintly  spirit  would  have  dared  to  use  in  a  country 
where  life  and  death  were  at  the  bidding  of  the  monarch, 
and  a  word  too  much  or  too  little  might  have  set  the 
seal  of  martyrdom  on  his  doom.  He  bade  him  remem- 
ber, that  if  he  were  a  king,  he  was  likewise  a  man;  that 
if  his  subjects  were  accountable  to  him,  he  also  was 
accountable  to  God,  who  would  judge  him  with  as 
much,  oi-  yet  more  severity  than  the  meanest  of  man- 
kind. He  asked  him  what  answer  lie  could  give  at 
the  last  day,  when  lie  should  be  reminded  that  Christ 
had  sent  His  ministers  to  him  from  the  farthest  ends 
of  the  earth  with  overtures  of  peace,  and  that  he  had 
rejected  and  scorned  the  proposition;  and,  in  conclu- 


CH.  I.]  JAPAN.  15 

sion,  lie  besought  him,  with  words  of  fire  flowing-  from 
the  very  inmost  recesses  of  his  burning  heart,  to  listen 
to  the  voice  of  his  Creator  speaking-  through  his  lips; 
and  instead  of  stifling-  the  g-ood  sentiments  with  which 
he  had  been  inspired,  to  change  his  life  at  once,  and 
become  a  Christian;  adding-,  that  he  should  die  content 
if  he  could  but  hear  on  his  return  to  the  Indies  that 
the  king-  of  Bong-o  had  been  the  first  crowned  head  in 
Japan  upon  which  the  baptismal  waters  of  salvation 
had  been  poured.  The  king-  was  much  moved  by  this 
discourse,  which  Francis  pronounced  with  great  ma- 
jesty and  devotion,  ending-  it  by  kissing-  his  majesty's 
hand,  and  humbly  thanking-  him  for  all  his  favours. 

On  the  20th  March,  1551,  he  sailed  from  Bong-o, 
to  which  he  never  returned;  but  he  was  not  on  that 
account  unmindful  of  the  dear  converts  he  had  left 
behind  him,  and  almost  the  last  act  of  his  life  was  the 
despatching  a  fresh  supply  of  missionaries,  with  Father 
Balthazar  Gago  at  their  head,  to  the  assistance  of  those 
already  labouring-  in  Japan.  They  arrived  about  eight 
months  after  his  own  departure,  and  were  received  by 
the  king  with  the  same  kindness  he  had  always  shown 
to  Xavier  himself;  but  for  the  present  they  made  no 
long  stay  in  his  dominions,  proceeding  at  once  to  Aman- 
guchi,  where  they  were  anxious  to  confer  with  Father 
Torres  on  the  affairs  of  their  mission.  One  can  con- 
ceive the  joy  which  these  g;ood  fathers  felt  on  their 
first  meeting  in  the  distant  land  to  which  they  had 
come,  for  no  other  end  than  the  salvation  of  souls  and 
the  glory  of  God,  and  with  no  other  earthly  hope  than 
to  see  both  the  one  and  the  other  promoted  by  their 
labours. 

The  festival  of  Christmas  being  close  at  hand,  they 
resolved  to  celebrate  it  with  all  possible  pomp  and  glad- 
ness, adorning  the  chapel  as  well  as  they  could,  and 
inviting  all  their  converts  to  assist  at  the  midnight 
Mass,  which  was  sung  by  Father  Torres.  The  new 
Christians  were  charmed  with  this  most  lovely  feast, 
the  commemoration  of  God's  tenderest  gift  of  love  to 


16  JAPAN. 

man ;  and  the  night  was  spent  in  deep  devotion :  while 
on  the  following  day  they  were  all  invited  to  dine  with 
the  fathers,  in  token  of  the  peace  and  charity  which 
reigned  among1  them.  The  college  was  thronged  on 
tne  occasion;  and,  contrary  to  all  the  usages  of  Japan, 
the  rich  and  noble  not  only  mixed  indiscriminately  with 
their  poorer  brethren  in  the  faith,  but  entering-  into  the 
true  spirit  of  the  festival,  chose  to  honour  the  poverty 
in  which  Christ  was  born  by  waiting-  on  them  at  the 
banquet. 

These  Christmas  festivities  being*  concluded,  the 
fathers  separated  for  their  several  missions,  leaving* 
Father  Torres  still  at  Amanguchi,  which  had  been  as- 
signed to  his  superintendence ;  but  not  long-  after  their 
departure,  one  of  the  civil  wars  by  which  Japan  is  so 
frequently  convulsed  broke  out  in  that  city :  the  streets 
ran  with  the  blood  of  the  contending*  factions  ;  and  the 
converts,  fearful  for  the  life  of  their  pastor,  besought 
him  to  withdraw.  For  more  than  a  month  he  resisted 
their  entreaties;  yet  he  could  not  be  unconscious  that 
while  missionaries  were  so  few  in  number,  the  life  of 
each  one  in  particular  was  of  inestimable  value  for  the 
success  of  their  undertaking;  so  at  last  he  consented 
to  retire,  on  condition  of  being  recalled  the  instant  that 
peace  should  be  re-established  in  the  kingdom.  That 
night  was  spent  in  hearing  the  confessions  of  these  fer- 
vent converts ;  and  the  next  morning  all,  men,  women, 
and  children,  accompanied  him  several  leagues  out  of 
the  city,  receiving*  his  blessing  in  tears  of  gratitude  and 
sorrow  before  he  took  his  final  departure  for  Bongo. 

It  should  be  mentioned,  however,  that,  previous  to 
these  events,  he  had  had  the  happiness  of  converting 
two  of  the  bonzes  most  renowned  for  learning  and 
wisdom  in  Japan.  They  had  long  been  in  the  habit  of 
attending  his  public  instructions,  and  had  already  con- 
ceived an  earnest  admiration  for  the  religion  which  he 
preached,  when  one  day  hearing  him  mention  St.  Paul, 
t!;ey  asked  some  questions  which  induced  him  to  give 
them  a  slierht  sketch  of  the  conversion  and  labours  of 


CH.  I.]  JAPAN.  17 

the  Apostle.  Charmed  with  the  account,  and  no  longer 
able  to  conceal  his  conviction,  the  most  celebrated  of 
the  two  bonzes,  instantly  turning'  round  to  the  audi- 
ence, exclaimed,  u  Behold,  0  Japanese !  I  also  am  a 
Christian !  and  as  I  have  hitherto  imitated  a  Paul  by 
my  opposition  to  Jesus,  so  will  I  follow  him  henceforth 
by  preaching1  to  the  heathens.  And  you,  my  friend," 
he  added,  turning'  to  his  companion,  "  come  with  me ; 
and  since  together  we  have  disseminated  error,  now 
together  let  us  teach  the  truth."  Even  as  he  was 
speaking-,  the  grace  from  on  high  which  had  been  poured 
on  his  own  heart  filled  to  overflowing'  the  breast  of  his 
companion.  Together  they  knelt  before  Father  Torres, 
imploring  baptism,  and  together  they  received  it  in  sight 
of  that  great  multitude  ;  one  being  called  Paul,  and  the 
other  Barnabas,  in  memory  of  the  incident  which  had 
thus  led  to  their  publicly  declaring  themselves  Chris- 
tians. 

From  that  moment  it  became  the  dearest  object  of 
their  devotion  to  emulate  the  zeal  and  labours  of  their 
namesakes;  more  especially  he  who  had  received  the 
name  of  Paul  sought  to  copy  in  himself  the  life  of  the 
Apostle  :  he  fasted  most  rigorously,  lay  on  the  bare 
g-round  with  a  stone  for  his  pillow,  rose  to  pray  at  mid- 
night, and  at  break  of  day  went  out  into  the  villages 
to  preach.  In  this  occupation  he  possessed  an  ad- 
vantage even  over  the  Jesuit  fathers  who  directed  his 
labours  :  for  he  not  only  preached  the  faith  as  eloquently 
as  themselves,  but  having  been  a  bonze,  he  could  like- 
wise, without  fear  of  contradiction,  lay  bare  the  impo- 
sitions of  his  former  associates.  It  was  probably  for 
this  reason  that  he  was  sent  with  Father  Balthazar,  in 
the  year  1557,  to  preach  before  the  king*  of  Firando ; 
and  among  the  thousands  they  converted  during  this 
mission  was  a  noble  lord,  a  relative  of  that  monarch, 
whom  the  father  baptised  by  the  name  of  Anthony. 
His  wife  and  son  followed  his  example ;  and  at  a  later 
period  all  three  distinguished  themselves  by  their  courage 
and  constancy  in  maintaining  the  faith.  For  the  pre- 
c 


18  JAPAN. 

sent  they  employed  themselves  with  diligent  zeal  in  its 
propagation.  Anthony  was  governor  of  two  islands 
near  Firando,  where  the  missionaries  prosecuted  their 
labours  with  such  happy  results,  that  in  a  short  time 
the  entire  population  was  converted,  and  three  churches, 
which  were  put  in  the  charge  of  the  most  fervent  of  the 
converts,  were  erected  for  their  use.  To  these  voluntary 
sacristans  was  also  assigned  the  religious  teaching  of  the 
children,  who,  under  their  care,  soon  became  as  pious 
and  well  instructed  as  their  elders.  Nothing,  indeed, 
is  more  wonderful  in  the  history  of  the  Church  of  Japan 
than  the  courage  and  devotion  every  where  displayed 
even  by  the  youngest  of  its  children.  In  the  times  of 
persecution  we  shall  frequently  find  them  smiling  amid 
torments  which,  unsupported  by  Divine  grace,  the  bravest 
of  men  would  have  been  unequal  to  endure.  Of  them 
it  may  be  truly  said,  that  they  were  indeed  prevented 
by  the  grace  of  God,  receiving  the  faith  as  readily  as 
they  kept  it  steadily,  and  being  often  beforehand  with 
the  missionaries  themselves  in  their  desire  for  instruc- 
tion. During  this  very  mission  of  Firando,  a  young 
child  came  to  seek  baptism  of  Father  Villela  (who  had 
been  sent  in  the  place  of  the  bonze  Paul) ;  it  was  pro- 
mised him  on  condition  of  his  learning  a  portion  of  the 
Christian  doctrine  or  Catechism.  "  But,  father,"  he 
answered,  smiling,  "  I  know  it  already."  Upon  exa- 
mination this  was  found  to  be  the  case ;  nor  would  he 
leave  the  spot  until  the  father  (judging  that  God  alone 
could  have  breathed  such  earnestness  into  the  heart  of 
a  child)  had  granted  his  request.  No  sooner  had  the 
baptismal  waters  touched  his  brow  than  the  boy  seemed 
changed  from  an  almost  infant  into  an  Apostle,  preach- 
ing the  faith  with  such  successful  zeal  in  his  own  home, 
that  only  a  few  days  afterwards  he  brought  his  whole 
family  in  triumph  to  be  baptised  like  himself. 

Unfortunately  the  labours  incurred  at  Firando  proved 
too  much  for  the  strength  of  the  converted  Paul  (Paul 
the  bonze,  as  he  was  usually  called);  and  feeling  his 
last  end  approaching,  with  the  consent  of  his  superiors, 


CH.   I.]  JAPAN.  10 

he  retraced  his  steps  to  Bongo,  that  lie  might  die  in. 
the  arms  of  Father  Torres,  his  first  instructor  and 
spiritual  father  in  the  faith.  The  good  old  man  re- 
ceived him  with  tears  of  tenderness  and  compassion; 
and  having-  administered  to  him  all  the  last  rites  of  the 
Church,  he  had  the  consolation  of  seeing*  him  die  in 
sentiments  of  most  fervent  devotion,  the  sweet  names 
of  Jesus  and  Mary  lingering-  on  his  lips  up  to  the  very 
last  moment  of  his  existence. 

His  departure  from  Firando  was  soon  followed  by 
that  of  the  fathers  who  had  been  his  companions  on 
that  mission.  Father  Balthazar  went  to  preach  at  Fa- 
cata ;  and  a  commotion  against  the  professors  of  the 
Christian  faith  soon  afterwards  induced  the  king,  not- 
withstanding- the  remonstrances  of  Prince  Anthony,  to 
command  the  departure  of  Father  Villela  likewise.  He 
obeyed,  exhorting  the  converts  to  patience  and  for- 
bearance. But  his  submission  by  no  means  diminished 
the  persecution-  for  no  sooner  was  it  known  that  he 
had  left  the  city,  than  the  bonzes  rushed  to  the 
churches,  and  encouraged  by  the  favour  or  indifference 
of  the  king,  pulled  down  the  altars,  burnt  the  crosses, 
tore  the  pictures  into  a  thousand  pieces,  and  did  all  in 
their  power  either  to  provoke  the  Christians  to  revenge, 
or  to  bring  them  back  once  more  to  the  worship  of 
their  idols.  Their  efforts  were  all  in  vain;  not  a  single 
convert  yielded  to  the  temptation,  or  forgot  the  lessons 
of  constancy,  peace,  and  forgiveness  which  had  been 
inculcated  by  the  fathers;  and  thus,  by  their  heroic 
firmness,  they  won  for  Firando  the  honour  of  giving  the 
first  martyr  to  the  Church  of  Japan.  A  cross  had  been 
erected  on  a  hill  outside  the  city ;  and  there,  since  the 
spoliation  of  their  churches,  they  had  been  in  the  habit 
of  meeting  for  their  public  devotions.  A  Christian 
slave  who  frecpiented  these  assemblies  was  threatened 
by  her  master  with  death,  if  she  persevered  in  the  prac- 
tice. She  modestly  answered,  "that  a  good  Christian 
feared  not  death ;  but  that  while  she  would  ever  be 
careful  of  her  duty  to  her  earthly  master,  she  could  not, 


20  JAPAN. 

therefore,  forget  that  which  was  owing'  to  her  God." 
The  next  day  she  went  out  as  "usual,  and  lie  awaited 
her  return  with  a  drawn  sword  in  his  hand.  The  gene- 
rous Christian  at  once  saw  and  accepted  her  doom,  and 
kneeling-  quietly  before  him,  he  cut  off  her  head  at  a 
single  blow.  The  Christians  buried  her  with  great  so- 
lemnity; and  far  from  being'  terrified  by  her  fate,  they 
were  never  weary  of  thanking-  God  for  the  constancy 
with  which  His  servant  had  suffered,  and  of  encourag'ing' 
one  another  to  follow  her  example. 

Father  Balthazar  and  his  companions  very  narrowly 
escaped  a  similar  fate  at  Pacata.  The  bonzes  drove 
them  with  contumely  from  the  city:  but  before  they 
could  get  clear  of  the  country  they  fell  into  the  hands 
of  some  heathens,  who  robbed  them  of  all  they  pos- 
sessed, stripping-  them  even  of  the  clothes  which  they 
wore,  and  debating-  in  their  very  presence  as  to  the 
propriety  of  putting-  them  to  death.  Finally,  they  were 
shut  up  in  a  miserable  cave,  where  they  were  left  with- 
out food  or  light,  until,  by  the  help  of  some  Christians, 
they  succeeded  in  escaping-  to  the  kingdom  of  Bong-o. 
There  they  were  received  in  triumph  and  rejoicing-, 
the  inhabitants  of  the  capital  going  forth  to  meet  them, 
with  wine  and  fruit  for  their  refreshment,  and  thanks, 
deep  and  fervent,  to  Almighty  God  for  the  protection 
which,  in  the  hour  of  their  utmost  need,  He  had  so 
visibly  accorded  to  His  servants. 

Troubles  or  persecutions  had  now  reunited  in  Bong-o 
the  very  same  fathers  who,  only  six  years  before,  had 
met  at  Amang-uchi  with  such  a  goodly  prospect  of  suc- 
cess before  them ;  but  however  deephr  they  might  feel 
this  untoward  chang-e  in  their  affairs,  they  had  far  too 
much  of  the  true  missionary  spirit  in  their  bosoms  to 
lose  either  courage  or  perseverance.  They  were  driven 
back,  but  not  defeated;  delayed,  but  not  disheartened; 
and  while  waiting  until  a  wider  field  should  be  again 
opened  to  their  exertions,  they  occupied  themselves 
with  zeal  and  efficiency  in  promoting  the  cause  of  re- 
ligion in  the  narrower  vineyard  feo  which  Providence 


CH.  I.]  JAPAN.  21 

for  the  present  had  limited  their  labours.  For  this  pur- 
pose they  dispersed  .themselves  throughout  the  cities 
and  villages  of  the  kingdom  of  Bongo,  every  wh 
preaching-  and  converting'  thousands,  braving  alike  the 
anger  of  the  bonzes  and  the  prejudices  of  the  people ; 
and  three  noble  hospitals,  erected  at  this  time  in  the 
city  of  Funay,  bear  witness  to  the  holy  indiiference  to 
all  personal  considerations  of  safety  with  which,  even- 
in  the  darkest  hour  of  defeat,  they  could  press  the  most 
unpalatable  doctrines  of  the  Christian  religion  upon  the 
minds  of  a  proud  and  irritable  nation.  These  hospitals 
were  destined  for  the  reception  of  foundlings,  of  lepers. 
and  of  the  sick  poor, — three  classes  of  persons  for  whom 
the  Japanese  had  hitherto  been  taught,  both  by  the 
laws  of  their  country  and  its  religious  institutions,  to 
entertain  feelings  not  only  of  utter  indifference,  but  of 
profound  contempt.  No  wonder,  then,  that  the  heathens 
marvelled  at  a  charity  universal  as  the  faith  which  had 
called  it  into  being;  or  that  the  king  was  filled  with 
still  higher  admiration  when,  declining  the  pecuniary 
aid  which  he  offered  to  themselves,  the  Jesuit  Fathers 
besought  him  to  bestow  it  on  these  holy  institutions ; 
or  that  the  converts,  charmed  at  this  unexpected  mode 
of  exercising  that  tenderness  which  the  very  name  of 
Jesus  had  already  generated  in  their  bosoms,  should 
have  applied  themselves  to  the  solace  of  the  sick  with 
a  sweetness- and  devotion,  which  was  perhaps  almost  a 
higher  panegyric  on  the  religion  of  love  they  had  em- 
braced, than  the  most  eloquent  oration  ever  preached 
among  them  in  its  honour  by  their  spiritual  fathers. 


22  JAPAN, 


CHAPTER  II. 

The  bonzes  of  Frenoxama.  Father  Villela's  voyage  to  M'x&ko. 
Extraordinary  conversion  of  two  principal  bonzes.  Success  at 
Saccay.  The  Kumbo's  levee.  Nobunanga  restores  the  Kumbo's 
family  at  Miako,  and  destroys  the  bonzes  of  Frenoxama ;  con- 
spiracy against  him  defeated  ;  his  magnificent  tournament ;  his 
favourable  disposition  towards  Christianity. 

It  will  be  remembered  that  Miako  was  alike  the  object 
of  the  dearest  aspirations  of  Francis;  and  the  place 
where,  to  all  human  appearances,  his  efforts  had  met 
with  the  most  signal  defeat.  But  it  was  not  so  in  the 
eyes  of  God.  The  seed  which  the  Saint  had  sown,  amid 
opprobrium  and  insult,  had  fallen  upon  a  hard  soil ;  it 
lay  dormant  indeed  for  a  time,  but  now  it  was  about  to 
spring*  up,  and  to  yield  fruit  hundredfold  to  his  succes- 
sors in  the  harvest. 

Very  near  the  city  lay  the  mountain  of  Frenoxama, 
famous  as  the  principal  gathering-place  of  the  bonzes, 
and  the  residence  of  the  Jaco,  their  spiritual  pontiff. 
At  one  time  they  are  said  to  have  possessed  no  fewer 
than  three  thousand  monasteries  within  its  precincts; 
but  even  before  the  arrival  of  the  Jesuits  in  Japan,  the 
number  had  been  gradually  reduced  to  six  hundred. 
At  the  head  of  one  of  these  houses  was  an  old  man  of 
great  reputation  for  sanctity  and  learning;  and  vague  ru- 
mours reached  him,  slowly  and  by  degrees,  of  a  stranger 
bonze  who  had  preached  a  new  doctrine  in  Miako  and 
its  neighbourhood.  The  little  that  he  heard  made  him 
long  to  hear  yet  more;  and  filled  with  astonishment  at 
the  sublime  wisdom  which  he  could  discern  even  in 
such  fragments  of  Xavier's  discourses  as  were  repeated 
to  him  by  others,  he  wrote  to  Father  Torres,  beseech- 
ing him  to  visit  Frenoxama,  and  assuring  him  that 
nothing  but  his  age  and  infirmity  prevented  him  from 


CH.  II.]  JAPAN.  23 

proceeding-  at  once  to  Bongo,  to  be  instructed  in  the 
faith.  The  father  would  have  gladly  accepted  this 
unlooked-for  invitation,  but  he  also  was  too  much 
broken  by  years  and  labours  to  venture  on  such  a  jour- 
ney ;  he  sent  therefore  in  his  stead  an  exposition  of  the 
Christian  doctrine  in  Japanese  characters  for  the  further 
instruction  of  the  bonze,  and  as  soon  afterwards  as  he 
could,  he  despatched  one  of  his  brethren  to  complete 
his  conversion. 

Father  Villela  was  the  Jesuit  chosen  for  this  mis- 
sion; so  he  shaved  his  head  and  beard, — without  which 
disguise  it  would  have  been  impossible  to  gain  admit- 
tance to  any  of  the  monasteries  of  the  mountains, — and 
then  took  shipping  for  Miako.  Innumerable  were  the 
disasters  which  he  encountered  on  his  way.  Almost  on 
starting,  he  had  refused  to  join  the  sailors  in  a  super- 
stitious offering  to  their  gods :  and  from  that  moment 
every  possible  misfortune  that  occurred,  every  foul 
wind,  or  rising  tempest,  or  unwelcome  calm,  was  attri- 
buted to  the  divine  indignation  against  this  impious 
traveller.  They  certainly  did  what  they  could  on  their 
own  account  to  avenge  the  insulted  feelings  of  their 
idols ;  for  they  retrenched  his  provisions,  beat  him  like 
a  slave,  abandoned  him  for  ten  days  together  on  a  de- 
sert shore,  exposed  to  every  vicissitude  of  wind  and 
weather,  and  finally  landed  him  far  away  from  his  des- 
tination, which  they  left  him  to  seek  in  the  best  way  that 
he  could.  After  this,  it  was  in  vain  that  he  sought  a 
passage  onboard  any  of  the  remaining  ships  in  the  har- 
bour. His  ill  fame  had  gone  before  him,  and  no  one 
would  run  the  risk  of  his  presence;  nor  was  it  until  every 
other  vessel  had  put  out  to  sea  that  he  obtained  a  pas- 
sage in  a  little  bark,  which,  ill  fitted  as  it  was  for  so 
long  a  voyage,  succeeded  in  landing  him  safely  twelve 
leagues  from  Miako,  on  the  29th  November,  1559. 

His  first  thought  was  for  the  poor  bonze  who  had 
first  invited  him ;  but  when  he  reached  the  mountain, 
he  found  to  his  inexpressible  sorrow  that  the  old  man 
was   dead.      The  bonze,  however,  who  had  succeeded 


24  JAPAN, 

him  in  his  office,  and  probably  in  some  of  his  opinions 
also,  gave  a  most  consoling-  account  of  his  death ;  for 
to  his  latest  breath  he  professed  his  belief  in  the  mys- 
teries Father  Torres  had  unfolded  to  him  by  letter,  de- 
claring- that  he  renounced  his  idols,  and  died  a  Christian 
in  heart  and  soul.  At  the  request  of  this  successor, 
Father  Villela  preached  to  the  other  bonzes  of  the 
mountain;  and  then,  going*  straight  to  Miako,  he 
and  his  companion  spent  ten  days  in  prayer,  fasting-, 
and  mortification ;  after  which,  having-  as  he  hoped  ob- 
tained the  blessing  of  Heaven  on  his  labours,  he  took 
his  station  in  the  market-place,  holding-  aloft  the  Cross 
of  Christ,  and  calling-  upon  all  to  come  and  hear  the  ex- 
position of  His  Gospel.  He  was  eloquent  and  learned, 
as  well  as  holy ;  and  it  was  soon  universally  acknow- 
ledged that,  in  each  of  these  particulars,  the  European 
bonze  far  surpassed  any  of  the  native  worthies  of  Fre- 
noxama.  All  the  learned,  the  idle,  and  the  curious  of 
the  nation  flocked  eagerly  to  hear  him,  while  the  de- 
feated bonzes  prepared  to  assail  him  with  their  usual 
weapons  of  calumny  and  fraud. 

It  is  curious  to  observe  how  these  modern  heathens 
unconsciously  imitated  the  heathens  of  ancient  times, 
by  preferring  precisely  the  same  charges  against  the 
Christian  name  as  the  Romans  had.  done  some  fifteen 
hundred  years  before.  Similarit}r  of  calumny  surely 
argues  similarity  in  the  doctrine  that  has  called  it  forth ; 
and  when  we  find  the  Jesuit  preachers  of  Japan  accused 
as  devourers  of  men's  flesh,  suckers  of  blood,  and  mur- 
derers of  infants,  it  is  impossible  not  to  identify  the  Eu- 
charistic  Sacrifice  at  Rome  in  the  first  four  centuries 
with  that  of  Japan  in  the  sixteenth,  as  the  common 
source  and  cause  of  these  horrible  accusations.  Neither 
in  the  first  case  nor  in  the  last  could  people  listen  to 
them  unm'oved  ;  the  inhabitants  of  Miako  soon  shrank 
from  Father  Villela  as  they  would  have  shrunk  from  a 
murderer  and  a  monster ;  and  as  nobody  would  any 
longer  give  him  a  lodging,  he  and  his  companion  were 
obliged  to  take  up  their  abode  in  a  ruined  shed.     Here 


CH.  II.J  JAPAN.  L'O 

he  lived  for  three  months,  in  the  depth  of  winter,  with- 
out bed  or  fire,  exposed  to  all  weathers,  for  the  hut  was 
roofless ;  feeding-  on  roots,  sleeping'  on  the  ground,  in 
constant  peril  of  his  life,  steeped  to  the  lips  in  suffering 
and  insult, — for  the  very  children  were  never  weary  of 
abusing-  him  as  a  man-eater ;  yet,  spite  of  all  these  out- 
ward miseries,  cling-ing-  with  supernatural  tenacity  to 
the  mission  which  Xavier  himself  had  been  compelled 
to  abandon,  and  resolved  to  shed  his  blood  in  Miako  or 
to  win  it  to  his  Lord. 

What  could  resist  such  courag-e  and  perseverance  ? 
His  very  life  seemed  a  greater  miracle  than  the  relig-ion 
that  he  preached.  By  degrees  the  people  became  con- 
vinced of  his  innocence ;  the  nobles  again  flocked  to 
hear  him ;  a  church  was  built,  a  residence  bought, 
and  all  seemed  going-  on  to  the  utmost  of  his  wishes, 
when  one  day  a  rumour  ran  through  the  city  that  two 
bonze?  (they  were  magicians  too,  as  well  as  bonzes)  had 
been  deputed  by  the  Kumbo  to  examine  into  the  pre- 
cepts of  the  Christian  religion,  and  to  decide  whether 
or  not  it  was  compatible  with  the  safe  government  of 
the  kingdom.  Impartiality  was  not  to  be  expected 
from  such  judges  as  these.  The  Christian  converts 
gave  up  all  for  lost;  and  at  their  recpiest  Father  Villela 
withdrew  a  few  leagues  out  of  the  city,  in  order  to  avoid 
the  insults  which  the  bonzes,  intoxicated  by  their  hopes 
of  certain  success,  were  already  heaping  on  the  pro- 
fessor- of  the  Christian  religion.  Truly  the  ways  of 
God  are  not  our  ways,  nor  His  thoughts  our  thoughts. 
While  the  one  party  was  thus  glorying  in  its  expected 
triumph,  and  the  other  was  weeping  for  its  anticipated 
defeat,  Divine  Providence  led  one  of  the  future  umpires 
into  the  presence  of  an  unlettered  Christian  (for  such 
he  seems  to  have  been)  of  the  name  of  James.  The 
bonze  questioned  him  concerning  his  religion  :  at  first 
James  was  unwilling  to  reply;  but  finding  that  his 
silence  was  misinterpreted  into  the  possession  of  secrets 
which  it  was  unlawful  to  betray,  the  generous  Christian 
spoke  boldly  out ;  and  following  the  inspiration  that  was 


26  i.wax. 

given  him,  he  poured  forth  a  long-  and  eloquent  oration 
on  the  immortality  of  the  soul,  the  punishment  of  the 
wicked  and  reward  of  the  good, — these  being  precisely 
the  doctrines  most  frequently  denied  by  the  anti-religion- 
ists of  the  court.  Contrary  to  every  expectation,  the 
bonze  listened  to  him  with  profound  attention  ;  and  no 
sooner  had  he  concluded,  than  he  bade  him  fetch  the 
Jesuit  father,  adding,  that  if  the  scholar  could  speak 
with  such  sublimity,  what  mighty  things  might  he  not 
learn  from  the  master!  James  lost  not  a  moment  in 
going*  to  Saccay,  where  Father  Villela  then  was  ;  but 
when  he  had  declared  his  mission  in  the  full  assembly  of 
the  faithful,  neither  pastor  nor  people  could  believe  in  its 
reality.  Notwithstanding  this  incredulity,  however,  the 
father  would  willingly  have  obeyed  the  summons,  but 
that  the  Christians  positively  forbade  him*  and  one  of 
the  Jesuit  brothers  was  despatched  in  his  stead.  Three 
days  passed,  and  nothing  was  heard  of  Miako  or  the 
messenger.  The  Christians  foreboded  evil;  and  an- 
other was  about  to  be  despatched  to  discover  his  fate, 
when  he  made  his  appearance  with  the  joyful  tidings 
of  a  successful  mission.  According  to  the  account  he 
brought,  the  bonze-umpires  were  only  awaiting  the 
father's  arrival  to  be  received  into  the  Church  *.  and  as 
they  were  among  the  most  powerful  lords  of  the  court, 
there  was  little  doubt  that  very  many  others  would 
follow  their  example.  When  he  had  ceased  speaking,  the 
assembled  Christians  lifted  up  their  voices,  weeping,  and 
thanking*  God  for  that  infinite  power  over  the  human 
heart  by  which  He  had  changed  the  fiercest  enemies 
of  the  Church  into  its  most  zealous  defenders.  As  for 
Father  Villela,  he  lost  not  a  moment  in  setting  out  for 
Miako,  where  he  found  every  thing  just  as  Brother 
Lmuence  had  described;  and  by  the  influence  of  the 
converted  bonzes,  an  imperial  edict  was  afterwards 
obtained  for  the  toleration  of  the  Christian  faith,  which 
soon  began  to  justify  the  anticipations  of  Francis, 
and  to  diffuse  itself  rapidly  over  the  adjoining  king- 
doms 


CH.  II.]  JAPAN.  27 

Saccay  had  already  received  it  previously  to  the 
late  troubles,  Father  Vil'lela  having-  been  invited 
thither  by  the  governor  of  the  town ;  and  that  noble- 
man, after  having*  been  baptised  himself,  fitted  up  a 
room  as  a  church,  where  the  father  and  his  companion 
preached  twice  a  day,  converting  many  of  the  inhabit- 
ants, and  even  a  portion  of  the  garrison.  The  world 
wondered  to  see  these  last  exchange  the  license  and 
libertinism  of  a  garrison-life  for  the  modesty  and  devo- 
tion of  the  Christian  profession ;  but  they  wondered  yet 
more  at  the  precocious  sanctity  of  the  nobleman's  chil- 
dren. The  boy  was  not  fourteen  when  he  received  bap- 
tism ;  and  being  naturally  of  a  gracious  appearance,  the 
candour  and  modesty  which  from  that  moment  beamed 
on  his  brow  made  his  beauty  almost  angelic ;  while  his 
young  heart  was  so  replenished  by  the  Holy  Ghost, 
that  he  already  began  to  imitate  in  his  life  the  virtues 
and  austerities  of  the  saints.  His  sister  Monica  deserves^ 
to  be  yet  more  particularly  mentioned,  as  the  first 
maiden  on  the  records  of  Japan  who  consecrated  herself 
to  God  in  the  holy  state  of  virginity.  He  Himself  had 
inspired  her  with  this  desire  at  the  instant  of  baptism; 
and  in  order  to  obtain  grace  for  a  state  which  she  knew 
must  expose  her  to  the  persecution  of  relations  and  ridi- 
cule of  friends,  she  began  a  practice  from  that  moment 
of  fasting  three  times  a  week,  and  spending  several 
hours  daily  in  meditation  on  the  Passion  of  our  Lord ; 
and  in  this  course  she  persevered  for  many  years,  until, 
having  obtained  the  consent  of  her  parents,  and  the  ap- 
probation of  the  Jesuit  father  who  at  that  time  guided 
her  conscience,  she  joyfully  cut  off  her  hair,  and  bound 
herself  by  vow  to  that  holy  state  which,  like  the  saints 
of  old,  she  had  chosen  from  her  childhood. 

But  we  must  return  to  Miako,  where  Father  Villeia, 
no  longer  hampered  by  the  opposition  of  the  govern- 
ment, threw  himself  into  the  labours  of  the  mission  with 
all  the  zeal  of  a  true  son  of  St.  Ignatius.  By  day  he 
was  always  preaching  and  hearing  confessions,  without 
intermission;  while  his  nights  were  devoted  to  the  trans- 


28  JAPAN. 

lation  of  Catholic  books  into  the  Japanese  language,  of 
which  he  was  by  this  time  become  a  perfect  master. 
Such  unmitigated  toil  soon  wrought  upon  him  the  effect 
of  years;  and  when  at  last  Father  Froes  was  sent  to  his 
assistance,  he  wondered  to  see  him,  at  the  age  of  forty- 
two,  grey-haired  and  broken  down  like  a  man  of  four- 
score. 

The  new  missionary  chanced  to  arrive  about  the 
season  when  the  great  lords  and  princes  of  Japan  pay 
their  yearly  homage  and  tribute  to  the  Kumbo,  who 
receives  them  as  a  divinity,  cross-legged,  and  without 
giving  any  sign  of  recognition,  save  when  he  conde- 
scendingly waves  his  fan  to  any  one  whom  he  more 
particularly  desires  to  honour. 

Father  Villela  was  in  the  frequent  habit  of  attend- 
ing this  levee  ;  and  he  now  took  with  him  Father  Froes, 
habited  in  surplice  and  stole,  and  wearing  over  these, 
in  honour  of  the  occasion,  a  cloak  of '  linsey  woolsey' 
edged  with  a  golden  fringe.  Poor  enough  it  must  have 
been,  for  all  its  tinsel  trimmings;  and  yet  it  seems  to 
have  particularly  taken  the  fancy  of  the  Kumbo;  for  after 
they  had  left  his  presence,  he  sent  a  special  messenger 
to  request  another  view  of  the  father  bonze's  "line 
cloak."  "  I  know  not,"  says  the  chronicler,  with  won- 
derful naivete,  "what  there  could  have  been  in  this 
garment, — which  I  am  credibly  informed  was  made  b}r 
the  father  himself,  and  lined  with  old  stuffs  of  divers 
colours, — to  make  it  worthy  the  attention  of  a  prince  in 
possession  of  all  that  was  beautiful  and  precious  in  Ja- 
pan ;  but  as  I  cannot  believe  he  could  really  admire  a 
patched  and  parti-coloured  cloak,  I  must  conclude  it 
was  not  the  article  itself,  but  the  newness  of  the  fashion, 
which  made  him  covet  to  see  it."  Possibly  it  was  those 
very  patches  and  parti-colours  which  caused  it  to  be 
an  object  of  curiosity  to  the  most  luxurious  monarch  in 
Japan;  but  however  this  may  have  been,  it  was  safely 
returned  after  half  an  hour's  examination,  -and  its  owner 
conducted  to  the  mother  of  the  Kumbo,  whom  he  found 
surrounded  by  her  ladies  in  a  kind  of  oratory  adorned 


CH.  II.]  JAPAN.  29 

with  a  statue  of  the  god  Amida,  richly  diademed,  and 
with  a  golden  glory  on  his  head.  History  does  not 
tell  us  whether  she  also  took  a  fancy  to  the  wonderful 
cloak;  hut  at  all  events  she  received  both  the  fathers 
very  graciously,  offering-  them  cha  in  cups  of  precious 
metal,  and  xacane,  a  kind  of  sweetmeat  much  prized 
in  Japan,  which  she  condescendingly  presented  with  her 
own  hands  at  the  end  of  little  sticks. 

A  very  short  time  after  this  interview,  the  Ivumho 
was  deprived  of  his  crown  and  life  by  one  of  those  sud- 
den revolutions  which  render  the  history  of  Japan  so 
changeful  and  perplexing ;  and  during-  the  anarchy 
which  followed,  the  fathers  were  banished,  and  compelled 
to  retire  once  more  to  Bongo.  According-  to  the  bar- 
barous custom  of  the  country,  the  Kumbo's  family  were 
included  in  his  destruction ;  one  only  escaped  the  general 
massacre,  and  he  took  refuge  at  the  court  ofNobunanga, 
king  of  Boari.  Nobunanga  was  brave,  powerful,  and 
ambitious, —  the  best  general  and  ablest  politician  in 
Japan ;  yet  probably,  in  the  first  instance,  it  was  rather 
pity  for  an  injured  prince  than  any  ulterior  designs  in 
his  own  favour  that  induced  him  to  take  the  part  of 
the  royal  exile,  and  to  send  an  army  under  Yatadono, 
the  general  of  his  forces,  in  pursuit  of  the  rebels.  Hav- 
ing succeeded  in  raising'  a  considerable  force,  the  latter 
did  not  seek  to  avoid  the  contest;  for  whatever  the  people 
might  think  of  the  murder  of  their  monarch,  they  had 
no  wish  to  see  their  country  in  the  hands  of  a  stranger, 
especially  of  one  so  ambitious  and  powerful  as  Nobu- 
nanga  was  reported  to  be.  For  a  considerable  time  the 
two  armies  la}'  encamped  within  sight  of  each  other; 
the  Christian  squadrons  on  either  side  being-  plainly  dis- 
tinguished from  the  rest  by  the  cross  on  their  standards, 
and  the  medals  engraved  with  the  name  of  Jesus  on 
their  helmets.  It  was  winter;  and  Christmas  night  find- 
ing them  in  the  midst  of  these  warlike  preparations,  to 
the  infinite  astonishment  of  the  heathens,  the  Christian 
warriors,  by  mutual  consent,  laid  down  their  arms  ;  and 
entering  the  town  of  Saccay,  confessed  and  communi- 


30  JAPAX. 

cated,  and  attended  to  all  the  religions  services  of  the 
Church ;  after  which  they  dined,  friends  and  foes  tog-e- 
ther, in  the  house  of  Father  Froes,  and  then  separated 
in  peace  and  good-will  to  their  several  encampments. 

The  battle  which  ensued  terminated  in  favour  of 
Nobunanga's  forces;  and  with  his  accustomed  despatch, 
that  monarch  brought  the  new  Kumbo  to  Miako,  and  in 
full  court  expressed  his  gratitude  to  the  general  through 
whose  prowess  he  had  been  enabled  to  accomplish  this 
triumph.  Upon  this  hint  Vatadono  spoke ;  his  brother 
was  about  to  become  a  Christian,  he  himself  was  one 
in  heart  already,  and  for  all  the  services  he  had  ren- 
dered Nobunanga,  he  only  craved  the  recal  of  the  Jesuit 
fathers.  A  bonze  present  ventured  to  suggest  the 
danger  of  this  measure;  but  Nobunanga  hated  the 
bonzes,  and  despised  their  idols :  he  answered  there- 
fore with  words  of  cutting  scorn ;  and  by  his  express 
permission  Father  Froes  was  speedily  restored  to  his 
forsaken  church.  Vatadono  took  him  directly  to  visit 
the  king,  whom  they  found  on  the  drawbridge,  super- 
intending the  new  works  of  a  palace  he  was  building* 
for  the  Kumbo.  He  received  them  most  graciously, 
making  Father  Froes  cover  his  head  on  account  of 
the  intense  heat  of  the  sun ;  and  after  a  conference  of 
two  hours,  during  which  he  inveighed  frequently  and 
fiercely  against  the  wickedness  and  hypocrisy  of  the 
bonzes,  he  gave  him  full  permission  to  preach  the 
Gospel  throughout  the  kingdom,  and  so  dismissed  him. 

From  that  time  the  father  made  it  a  matter  of 
courtesy  to  visit  occasionally  at  the  palace;  and  on  one 
of  these  occasions  Nobunanga  caused  him  to  dispute 
publicly  with  a  celebrated  bonze  on  the  immortality 
of  the  soul,  and  expressed  himself  afterwards  extremely 
satisfied  with  the  arguments  of  the  father.  This  was 
sufficient  to  excite  the  jealousy  of  his  antagonist;  and  in 
his  thirst  for  vengeance,  he  not  only  obtained  a  license 
from  the  Dairi  to  kill  the  father  wherever  he  could  find 
him,  but  likewise  contrived  by  secret  intrigue  so  to 
wind  himself  into  Nobunanga's  favour,  that  during  a 


CH.  II.]  JAPAN.  31 

temporary  absence  of  that  monarch  from  Miako,  he 
was  created  chief  minister  of  the  kingdom,  with  a 
power  scarcely  inferior  to  that  which  had  been  assigned 
to  the  Kumbo.  Such  an  appointment  would  have  been 
fatal  to  the  interests  of  religion  ;  and  Vatadono  advised 
Father  Froes  to  follow  the  king  to  his  present  abode,  in 
order  to  make  a  representation  of  the  ill  conduct  of  the 
bonze.  This  advice  was  taken;  and  the  father  found 
Nobunanga  surrounded  by  his  nobles  :  he  instantly  left 
them,  however,  to  give  him  a  most  kind  reception;  and 
then,  being  inordinately  vain  of  his  riches  and  grandeur, 
insisted  on  showing  him  all  over  his  palace.  There 
was  no  refusing  so  gracious  an  offer ;  so  on  they  went, 
through  halls,  chambers,  galleries,  cabinets,  and  offices, 
"  which,"  says  the  historian,  "  the  very  lords  would 
never  have  seen,  had  it  not  been  for  the  father."  No- 
bunanga  even  introduced  him  without  ceremony  into 
the  apartments  of  his  children,  and  of  the  ladies  of  his 
household,  discoursing  all  the  while  about  the  ill-man- 
nered bonze,  and  affairs  at  Miako.  After  this  vain- 
glorious promenade,  the  father  was  invited  to  take 
some  refreshment ;  a  little  dwarf  was  made  to  dance 
for  his  amusement;  and  the  king  "whispering  the 
young  prince,"  one  of  the  royal  children  presented  both 
the  stranger  and  his  majesty  with  a  cup  of  tea,  the 
highest  honour  that  can  be  done  to  an  inferior  in  Japan. 
That  night  he  remained  by  especial  invitation  at  the 
palace,  and  the  next  morning  was  dismissed  with  such 
a  letter  to  the  Dairi  as  put  an  end  to  all  the  vindictive 
projects  of  his  foe,  who  being  afterwards  discovered  in  the 
commission  of  enormous  crimes,  would  certainly  have 
been  condemned  to  die,  had  not  his  spiritual  chief  inter- 
ceded in  his  favour.  As  it  was,  he  was  stripped  of  all 
his  dignities  and  possessions ;  and  from  being  one  of  the 
richest,  was  reduced  to  the  condition  of  the  meanest  in 
Japan. 

It  is  melancholy  to  relate,  that  Vatadono,  the  ori- 
ginator and  generous  promoter  of  all  these  advan- 
tages to   the  Church,  was   never   personally  enrolled 


32 


JAPAN. 


among  her  children.  He  was  at  his  own  fortress,  and 
actually  under  instruction  for  baptism,  when  his  estates 
were  unhappily  invaded  by  a  neighbouring*  lord ;  and  in 
the  engagement  that  ensued  he  was  left  dead  on  the 
field.  The  Christians  mourned  for  him  as  for  their 
father  and  protector;  but  most  of  all  Father  Froes  was 
inconsolable,  because  he  had  died  without  baptism ; 
nevertheless  he  trusted  that,  for  his  good  intentions, 
and  for  the  services  he  had  so  pre-eminently  rendered 
to  religion,  Almighty  God  in  His  goodness  would  ex- 
tend His  mercy  to  him. 

Soon  after  his  death,  Nobunanga  resolved  to  de- 
stroy the  bonzes  of  Frenoxama,  who  on  every  occa- 
sion had  endeavoured  to  thwart  his  plans  and  effect 
his  ruin;  and  for  this  purpose  he  marched  an  army 
to  the  foot  of  their  mountain.  The  terrified  solita- 
ries endeavoured  to  propitiate  him  with  a  large  sum  of 
money,  while  at  the  same  time  they  sought  to  rouse 
his  superstitious  fears  by  representing  the  sanctity  of 
the  spot  he  had  invaded  ;  but  Nobunanga,  with  all  the 
hard  irony  of  his  nature,  sent  them  word  "that  he 
needed  not  their  money;  and  that  as  to  the  sanctity  of 
Frenoxama,  if  their  gods  were  really  the  bonzes'  friends, 
they  would  doubtless  protect  them ;  but  if,  on  the  con- 
trary, they  were  foes,  he  himself  would  avenge  their 
quarrel."  True  to  his  word,  the  mountain  was  instantly 
surrounded;  troops  of  soldiers  climbed  its  precipices, 
and  entering  the  monasteries,  put  all  to  fire  and  sword. 
Some  of  the  wretched  bonzes  cast  themselves  head- 
long from  the  rocks;  others  took  sanctuary  in  the 
temple,  or  sought  concealment  in  the  caves  and  grottos. 
But  Nobunanga  had  taken  his  measures  too  surely  to 
allow  a  chance  of  escape.  He  burnt  the  temple,  with 
every  other  building  on  the  mountain ;  sent  his  men 
into  all  its  holes  and  caverns,  as  if  he  had  been  chasing 
wild  beasts;  and  finally  succeeded  so  well  in  his  scheme 
of  vengeance,  that  not  one  of  those  who  dwelt  on  Fre- 
noxama was  left  to  tell  the  tale  of  its  destruction. 
Satisfied  with  this  wholesale  butchery,  he  then  retired  to 


CH.  II.]  JAPAN.  33 

his  own  kingdom,  leaving  the  Kumbo  to  play  monarch 
for  a  time  at  Miako;  though  he  took  care  to  reserve  ail 
the  real  authority  of  that  office  to  himself. 

But  in  spite  of  this  assumed  moderation,  the  vast 
power  he  really  possessed,  and  the  magniiicence  in 
which  he  lived,  excited  the  jealousy  of  the  surrounding 
princes,  six  of  whom  entered  into  a  conspiracy  against 
him.  Before  they  declared  open  war,  however,  they 
were  very  anxious  to  obtain  possession  of  a  certain  for- 
tress, which,  from  its  strength  and  position,  would  be 
invaluable  to  their  cause.  This  fortress  was  governed 
by  Justo  Ucondono,  who,  with  his  father  Dairi,  was 
a  most  fervent  Christian;  but  after  some  negotiation, 
he  was  unhappily  persuaded  into  sending  his  children 
to  the  court  of  the  conspirators  as  hostages  for  the  safe- 
keeping of  the  castle.  Nobunanga  was  much  too  far- 
seeing  a  politician  not  to  be  soon  aware  of  the  con- 
spiracy that  was  on  foot :  and  having  just  the  same 
reasons  for  wishing  to  retain  the  castle  which  his  ene- 
mies had  for  desiring  to  gain  it,  lie  sought  to  wrest  it 
from  Justo  Ucondono  by  force  of  arms.  Failing  in  this, 
he  had  recourse  to  strata  gem.  Knowing  the  governor 
to  be  a  true-hearted  Christian,  and  one,  therefore,  who 
would  probably  prefer  the  interests  of  religion  to  any 
worldly  advantage  which  could  be  offered  to  himself, 
he  sent  him  word,  that  if  the  fortress  were  not  in- 
stantly surrendered,  he  would  kill  the  Jesuit  fathers, 
burn  the  churches,  and  root  the  very  name  of  Christian 
out  of  his  dominions.  It  were  vain  to  attempt  a  de- 
scription of  the  agony  of  Justo  in  this  terrible  dilemma. 
If  he  surrendered,  his  children  would  be  sacrificed  to 
the  rage  of  the  conspirators  ;  if  he  held  out,  he  knew 
too  well  that  Nobunanga  also  would  be  as  good  as  his 
word,  and  that  all  the  Christians  of  the  kingdom  would 
be  involved  in  one  common  ruin  through  his  means. 
Thus  torn  to  pieces  by  his  fatherly  tenderness  on  the 
one  side,  and  his  anxieties  for  religion  on  the  other, 
he  wrote  to  Father  Organtin  (who  had.  now  succeeded 
Father  Froes   on  the   mission),  imploring  -his   advice. 


34  JAPAN. 

That  father  recommended  the  matter  earnestly  to  God; 
and  then  going  to  the  fortress,  told  him  that  as  No- 
bunaifga  was,  in  fact,  his  sovereign,  it  was  his  duty  to 
obey  his  orders  in  preference  to  those  of  any  other  mon- 
arch; but  at  the  very  mention  of  the.  word  obey,  the 
governor's  wife  and  mother  broke  in  upon  the  confer- 
ence, and  poured  forth  such  bitter  lamentations  over 
the  probable  fate  of  his  children,  that  he  became  yet 
more  undecided  than  before;  and  at  a  late  hour  the 
father  took  his  leave,  without  having- succeeded  in  effect- 
ing- any  arrangement.  After  his  departure,  the  wretched 
man  felt  more  miserable  than  ever;  his  love  for  his  chil- 
dren, the  tears  of  his  wife  and  mother,  were  rending-  his 
heart;  but  the  ruin  of  religion,  the  massacre  of  the  fa- 
thers, and  persecution  of  the  Christians,  which  he  fore- 
saw would  be  the  inevitable  consequences  of  his  present 
conduct,  were  yet  more  terrible  thoughts  to  bear.  In 
the  agonising  conflict  which  ensued,  he  retired  to  his 
cabinet,  fell  on  his  knees,  and  after  a  short  but  fervent 
prayer,  rose  like  a  second  Abraham,  prepared  to  sacrifice 
all  he  held  dearest  in  the  world  to  the  dictates  of  con- 
science. That  very  night  he  was  at  the  court  of  No- 
bunanga,  who  received  him  with  unexpected  kindness; 
but  the  father's  heart  was  heavy  for  his  children,  and 
no  princely  favour  could  give  him  comfort,  until  at 
length  he  heard  that  his  father,  Dairi,  had  gone  to  the 
court  of  the  conspirators,  and  with  infinite  difficulty 
had  succeeded  in  obtaining-  the  surrender  of  the  hos- 
tages. He  was  finally  restored  to  the  government  of 
the  fortress,  the  conspirators  were  defeated  in  open 
battle,  and  two  of  their  kingdoms  being  confiscated  for 
their  treachery,  were  added  to  those  already  in  No- 
bunang-a's  possession. 

Some  of  these-  kingdoms  he  now  parcelled  out  to 
his  sons.  He  had  long*  since  entirely  set  aside  the  poor 
Kumbo,  depriving  him  even  of  the  shadow  of  greatness 
which  he  had  formerly  possessed ;  and  then,  either  in- 
toxicated by  success,  or  with  a  view  to  the  conciliation 
of  the  other  princes,  he  resolved  upon  giving  a  kind 


CH.  II.]  JAPAN.  35 

of  national  tournament  in  honour  of  his  victories.  In 
order  to  make  it  as  magnificent  as  possible,  a  royal  pro- 
clamation forbade  the  attendance  of  any  lord  who  was 
unable  to  go  to  the  most  extravagant  expenses  in  his 
equipment ;  and  on  their  part,  hoping  to  win  the  favour 
of  a  monarch  who  was  now  considered  invincible,  the 
princes  vied  with  each  other  in  the  splendour  of  their 
arrangements  and  the  prodigality  of  their  presents  to 
the  royal  donor  of  the  i'ete.  The  general  of  the  forces 
made  gifts  to  the  amount  of  fifty  thousand  ducats; 
another  spent  twenty  thousand  on  his  own  equipment ; 
a  third  made  his  appearance  with  fifty  footmen  dressed 
in  the  most  sumptuous  silks  of  China;  while  Justo 
Ucondono  changed  the  colours  worn  by  his  train,  and 
the  fashion  of  their  garments,  no  less  than  seven  times 
in  the  course  of  the  day.  The  procession  was  opened  by 
seven  hundred  cavaliers,  with  their  attendants  in  rich 
liveries ;  then  came  Nobunanga's  three  sons,  shining  in 
gold  and  jewels  ;  after  them  the  monarch  himself,  sur- 
rounded by  innumerable  officers  and  attendants,  moimted 
on  a  superb  war-horse,  and  looking  as  if  a  shower  of 
precious  stones  had  fallen  on  his  garments.  "  It  was 
not  difficult,"  says  the  chronicler,  "  to  distinguish  him 
in  that  crowd ;  for  he  showed  himself  by  the  majesty  of 
his  presence  and  the  lustre  of  his  garments,  china-silk 
wrought  in  precious  stones,  with  a  scarf  of  inestimable 
value  cast  across  his  shoulders;  the  housings,  bridle, 
and  frontlet  of  his  horse  were  all  of  silver  and  gold,  the 
reins  were  set  in  pearls,  and  the  stirrups  of  pure  gold; 
a  thousand  cavaliers  of  the  royal  household  followed, 
and  as  soon  as  the  king  entered  the  lists  the  air  was 
rent  with  the  acclamations  of  the  multitude.  Then  the 
gentlemen  of  the  tournament  ranged  themselves  in  their 
respective  positions,  running  two  and  two  and  three  and 
three  against  each  other.  The  royal  princes  greatly 
distinguished  themselves  by  their  prowess;  but  to  No- 
bunanga,  who  ran  last,  the  victory  was  awarded." 
And  the  good  old  chronicler  assures  us  he  deserved  it 
for  his  dexterity,  never  for  a  moment  seeming  to  sus- 


36  JAPAN. 

pect  the  possibility  of  his  owing"  it  to  the  adulations 
and  slavish  fears  of  his  subjects. 

Nobunaj  (in  the  year  1581)  on  the 

st  pinnacle  of  his  ambition :  the  monarch  of 
thirty-two  kingdoms,  and  by  the  power  such  enormous 
possessions  conferred,  the  virtual  ruler  of  all.  Feared 
even  more  than  he  was  hated,  he  did  what  he  pleased ; 
showered  kingdoms  undisputed  on  his  children,  mas- 
sacred the  bonzes  without  opposition  wherever  he  could 
find  them ;  and  patronised  the  foreign  preachers  with- 
out regarding1  the  murmurs  of  that  heathen  priesthood, 
or  the  superstitious  terrors  of  their  fond  adherents. 
Yet,  though  he  certainly  entertained  a  strong  feeling 
in  favour  of  the  Christian  religion,  he  never  became  a 
Christian  himself.  Possibly  ambition  had  blinded  him 
to  desires  of  aught  but  material  greatness ;  or  he  hesi- 
tated to  exchange  the  voluptuous  life  of  a  heathen 
.monarch  for  the  stern  morality  of  the  Christian's  creed; 
or  allowing  both  these  circumstances  their  proper  weight, 
we  shall  probably  find  a  third,  and  a  far  more  insur- 
mountable obstacle  to  his  conversion,  in  the  hard  in- 
credulity as  to  the  honesty  of  any  priesthood,  which 
his  thorough  knowledge  of  the  hypocrisy  of  the  bonzes 
had  rooted  deeply  in  his  heart.  Any  suspicion  of  the 
motives  of  the  preacher  would  of  course  cast  a  reflec- 
tion on  the  religion  which  he  preached;  and  that  No- 
bunanga,  notwithstanding  the  honourable  testimony 
which  he  ever  bore  to  the  virtues  of  the  fathers,  could 
never  entirely  divest  himself  of  some  doubt  as  to  the 
ruling  principle  of  their  conduct,  the  following  anec- 
dote will  sufficiently  prove. 

Father  Organtin  had  been  paying  him  a  visit  at  the 
palace ;  and  after  a  private  interview  of  considerable 
duration,  the  king  caused  the  great  doors  of  the  audi- 
ence-chamber to  be  thrown  open,  exclaiming,  so  that 
all  those  without  might  hear,  "  Prepare  your  wives 
and  children  to  receive  the  faith,  for  the  arguments  of 
these  foreign  bonzes  are  irresistible."  Then,  turning 
to  Brother  Laurence,  the  companion  of  the  father,  he 


CH.  II.]  JA  PAX.  37 

bade  him  prove  to  all  assembled  both  the  unity  of  God 
and  the  fact  of  retribution  after  death.  The  brother 
obeyed;  and  while  the  hearts  of  all  present  were  thrill- 
ing' beneath  the  torrent  of  eloquence  which  flowed  from 
his  lips,  Nobunanga  took  him  by  the  hand,  and  once 
more,  and  as  if  by  an  irresistible  impulse,  led  him  and 
the  father  into  his  private  apartments.  There,  far  from 
the  curious  eyes  and  ears  of  his  courtiers,  he  conjured 
them  to  say  without  reserve  or  falsehood  whether  they 
really  believed  the  things  which  they  taught,  adding* 
that  several  bonzes  who  held  in  public  the  doctrines 
upon  which  Brother  Laurence  had  been  discoursing-, 
had  acknowledged  to  him  in  private  that  they  believed 
in  reality  nothing*  of  the  kind,  merely  fostering-  such 
fancies  in  the  people  under  the  idea  of  promoting*  the 
public  welfare.  Then  Father  Organtin,  with  a  grave 
and  serious  countenance  befitting  the  solemnity  of  his 
words,  vowed  by  all  he  held  sacred,  by  the  might  and 
majesty  of  God  Himself,  that  he  had  never  preached 
one  iota  of  doctrine  in  Japan  which  he  did  not  as  firmly 
believe  to  be  true  as  if  he  had  seen  it  with  his  own  eyes; 
and  taking  a  geographical  card  which  chanced  to  lie  on 
the  table,  he  pointed  out  the  distant  land  from  whence 
he  had  come,  the  many  perils  he  had  encountered  on 
the  way,  the  hardships,  the  insults,  and  even  dangers 
in  the  midst  of  which  he  was  daily  living  at  Miako, 
and  insisted  upon  the  folly  and  madness  of  which  he 
would  have  been  guilty  if  he  had  endured  all  this,  and 
more,  merely  for  the  propagation  of  a  ridicidous  fable  in 
which  he  did  not  himself  believe. 

-  The  king  listened  with  profound  attention,  and 
when  Father  Organtin  concluded  by  touching  sweetly 
and  eloquently  upon  the  certain  hope  of  heaven  which 
cheered  him  on  through  his  earthly  labours,  Xobunanga 
could  bear  it  no  longer,  but  giving  way  to  a  burst  of 
uncontrollable  feeling,  he  declared  he  was  so  enchanted 
with  the  father's  words,  that  he  could  hardly  make  up 
his  mind  to  allow  his  departure  from  the  palace.  That 
one  moment  of  hesitation  was  perhaps  the  turning-point 


38  JAPAN. 

in  his  career.  Grace  had  knocked  loudly  at  Lis  heart, 
or  why  was  he  so  unwilling1  to  allow  the  father  to  leave 
him  ?  It  had  knocked ;  but  he  would  not  open.  Pride, 
and  the  love  of  pleasure,  and  cold  infidelity,  with  all 
its  train  of  ung-enerous  suspicions,  were  in  the  citadel 
before  it ;  and  he  would  not  drive  them  hence  for  its 
admittance.  The  call  was  unheeded,  the  impulse 
checked ;  and  sadly  and  reluctantly,  but  still  without 
an  effort  to  retain  him,  he  suffered  his  faithful  monitor 
to  depart.  So  the  die  was  cast,  the  g-ood  inspiration 
gone  for  ever;  and  Nobunang-a,  for  all  his  pride  of  in- 
tellect and  scorn  of  the  bonzes'  knavish  superstitions, 
closed  his  reig-n  at  last  by  a  mandate  compelling-  his 
people  to  such  a  monstrous  act  of  gross  idolatry,  as 
would  have  disgraced  the  rule  of  the  least  enlightened 
of  his  ancestors. 


CH.  III.]  JAPAN  39 


CHAPTER  III. 

The  castle  of  Ekandono.  Sumitando,  king  of  Omura  ;  his  zeal 
tempered  with  discretion.  Father  Torres  goes  to  Vocoxiuva,  and 
settles  there.  Conversion  of  Sumitando  and  thirty  nobles  Con- 
spiracy against  him  defeated.  Jesuits  settled  at  Nangasaki. 
Conversion  of  the  king  of  Arima.  Christianity  introduced  into 
Goto.     The  king's  son  converted. 

When  Francis  and  his  companions  took  their  depar- 
ture from  Kangoxima,  to  seek  for  a  more  hospitable 
city  as  the  theatre  of  their  labours,  chance  led  them 
beneath  the  towers  of  a  lonely  fortress,  seated  on  a  steep 
rock,  and  so  entirely  surrounded  by  a  broad  deep  moat 
as  to  be  utterly  inaccessible  excepting*  by  a  drawbridge. 
Francis  paused  as  he  passed ;  and  no  sooner  was  he 
descried  from  the  lofty  roof,  than  a  servant  was  des- 
patched with  a  kind  and  courteous  message  from  the  go- 
vernor of  Ekandono  (for  this  was  the  name  of  the  castle), 
and  a  request  that  he  and  his  way-worn  companions 
would  enter  and  take  some  refreshment.  The  true  re- 
freshment of  Fiancis,  like  that  of  his  Divine  Master, 
was  "to  do  the  will  of  Him  who  sent  him,  by  making 
perfect  His  work ;"  and  so  well  did  he  accomplish  it  on 
this  occasion,  that  before  he  left  the  fortress  he  had  in- 
structed and  baptised  the  wife  of  its  chieftain,  together 
with  his  eldest  son  and  seventeen  soldiers  of  the  garri- 
son. Among-  these  last  was  a  venerable  old  man,  whose 
prudence  and  virtue  had  caused  him  to  be  respected 
by  the  others  as  a  father.  To  him  Francis  confided 
the  care  of  this  unlooked-for  little  flock,  giving*  him  for 
their  further- and  more  complete  instruction  a  written 
form  of  baptism,  an  abstract  of  our  Saviour's  life,  an 
exposition  of  the  creed,  the  litanies  and  penitential 
psalms,  together  with  a  table  of  Church  festivals  through- 
out the  year;  all  in  the  Japanese  lang-uag-e.  He  like- 
wise, with  the  consent  of  the  governor,  selected  a  spa- 


40  JAPAN. 

cious  apartment  for  the.  religious  exercises  of  the  faith- 
ful ;  and  bidding  the  old  man  assemble  them  there  at 
stated  times,  particularly  on  Fridays  and  Sundays,  for 
prayer  and  pious  reading*,  he  gave  them  his  last  bless- 
ing, and  so  departed. 

Thirteen  years  passed  slowly  by,  and  no  other  mis- 
sionary had  as  yet  approached  that  solitary  fortress, 
to  quicken  the  piety  or  renew  the  instruction  which 
these  good  neophytes  had  so  scantily  received.  St. 
Francis,  their  only  father  in  the  faith,  was  gone  to  his 
reward,  "exceeding  great,"  in  heaven;  the  other  mis- 
sionaries were  sent  perforce  to  the  crowded  cities  and 
more  important  kingdoms  which  demanded  their  aid; 
but  Father  Torres  had  never  forgotten  these  poor  people 
or  their  generous  eagerness  to  receive  the  faith;  and 
at  last,  finding  that  he  had  no  chance  of  being  able  to 
spare  a  priest  for  the  purpose,  he  sent  one  of  the  lay 
brothers  to  visit  them  instead.  This  time  there  was  no 
need  to  wait  until  a  servant  came  with  an  invitation  to 
enter.  The  Christians  knew  him  at  once  to  be  of  the 
same  calling  as  the  holy  man  who  years  before,  with  his 
saintly  looks  and  words  of  fire,  had  won  them  so  hap- 
pily to  the  knowledge  of  the  true  God;  eagerly  and 
joyfully  therefore  they  crowded  round  him,  making  a 
thousand  inquiries  after  their  dear  father ;  and  when 
they  heard  that  he  was  dead,  women  and  children,  young 
men  and  old,  all  together  burst  into  tears.  Brother 
Almeida  did  what  he  could  to  console  them,  telling 
them  of  the  holy  and  happy  death  of  St.  Francis ;  while 
they  on  their  part  showed  him  the  book  of  doctrine  and 
the  discipline  which  he  had  left  behind  him,  and  which 
they  had  ever  preserved  as  most  precious  relics. 

The  old  man  who  had  been  appointed  as  their  direc- 
tor was  also  dead;  but  Almeida  soon  discovered  that 
under  his  guidance  they  had  not  only  preserved  the  fer- 
vour and  innocence  of  their  conversion,  but  had  likewise 
preached  the  faith  so  effectually,  both  by  word  and  ex- 
ample, that  during  the  two  or  three  days  he  remained 
among  them  no  fewer  than  seventy  of  their  brethren 


CH.  III.]  JAPAN.  41 

solicited  baptism  at  his  hands.  The  son  of  the  gover- 
nor, who  had  been  baptised  by  Xavier,  was  now  placed  at 
their  head,  Almeida  associating-  with  him  in  this  charge 
a  young-  Japanese  of  rare  piety  and  attainments,  and 
afterwards  the  author  of  an  abridgment  of  the  Scriptures, 
which  proved  of  infinite  utility  in  the  young-  Church  of 
Japan.  He  it  was  who,  when  the  brother  asked  him, 
"  What  he  would  do  if  the  king'  should  command  him 
to  abjure  his  religion?"  made  that  answer,  no  less  re- 
markable for  its  fervent  zeal  than  for  the  nice  appre- 
ciation of  the  requirements  of  the  Christian  law  which 
it  so  clearly  implied  :  u  My  father,  thus  in  such  a  case 
would  I  reply  to  my  king* :  '  Do  you  wish,  0  king ! 
that  I  should  be  faithful  and  true  to  your  service, 
moderate,  patient,  and  obedient,  mindful  of  your  inte- 
rests and  forgetful  of  my  own,  full  of  charity  to  my 
neighbour,  and  of  forbearance  to  all  who  injure  or  op- 
pose me  ?  Command  me,  then,  to  be  a  Christian ;  for 
only  from  a  Christian  can  such  virtues  reasonably  be 
expected.' "  The  noble  sentiments  expressed  in  this 
speech  were  shared  by  every  member  of  the  garrison, 
and  the  governor  himself  was  the  only  man  among 
them  who  remained  a  heathen.  Even  he  was  an  infidel 
only  in  appearance;  for  he  promised  the  brother  that  he 
would  become  a  Christian  as  soon  as  he  could  do  so 
without  exciting-  the  displeasure  of  the  king.  We 
know  not  whether  the  grace  thus  rashly  rejected  was 
ever  offered  him  again,  Almeida  having  been  obliged 
to  depart  almost  immediately  afterwards,  in  conse- 
quence of  letters  which  Father  Torres  had  received  from 
Sumitando,  the  king*  of  Omuro. 

This  prince  was  the  son  of  the  king  of  Arima ;  but 
his  father  had  abdicated  some  time  previously  in  favour 
of  his  eldest  son;  he  was  himself  called  to  the  king- 
dom of  Omuro  by  the  general  consent  of  its  nobles,  their 
last  monarch  having  died  without  leaving-  any  legiti- 
mate heir  to  the  crown.  Sumitando  was  generous, 
noble-minded,  and  renowned  for  courage;  and  he  had 
reigned  for  some  years,  honoured  and  beloved  by  all 


42  JAPAN. 

his  subjects,  when  a  Japanese  book,  written  by  Father 
Villela  in  answer  to  the  objections  of  the  bonzes, 
chanced  to  fall  into  his  hands.  The  light  of  truth  seems 
to  have  flashed  at  once  without  a  shadow  of  doubt 
on  that  ingenuous  mind,  and  it  is  impossible  to  read 
his  history  without  feeling*  that  he  rose  from  this  first 
perusal  of  the  Christian  argument  with  a  Arm  and  un- 
compromising- resolution  to  become  a  Christian  himself. 
Prudence,  however,  was  happily  blended  with  that  great 
firmness  of  purpose  which  was  the  chief  characteristic 
of  this  prince.  He  knew  the  opposition  which  the 
Christian  preachers  had  every  where  met  with  from  the 
bonzes ;  he  knew  how,  in  the  first  instance,  they  had 
been  compelled  to  leave  Kangoxima,  how  afterwards 
they  had  been  imprisoned,  and  beaten,  and  barely  es- 
caped with  their  lives  at  Firando ;  how  the  multitude 
had  been  hounded  on  to  their  destruction  at  Miako ; 
and  how  even  at  Bongo,  under  the  very  eye  and  smile 
of  the  king  himself,  their  liberties  and  lives  had  been 
often  imperilled  by  the  hatred  of  the  bonzes,  who 
raised  tumult  after  tumult  in  order  to  drive  them  from 
the  city.  He  knew  all  this,  and  therefore  he  resolved 
to  pave  the  way  for  their  peaceful  reception  in  his  own 
dominions,  by  representing  to  his  council  the  advantages 
which  would  accrue  to  the  nation  from  traffic  with  the 
Portuguese ;  and  when  he  saw  that  they  were  perfectly 
alive  to  the  importance  of  this  measure,  lie  wrote  with 
their  consent  to  Father  Torres,  offering  his  countrymen 
the  port  of  Vocoxiuva  as  a  convenient  place  for  the 
landing*  of  their  goods ;  while  at  the  same  time  he 
seized  the  opportunity  of  privately  inviting  him  to  send 
some  of  his  religious  to  settle  in  the  same  town. 

This  was  the  business  upon  which  Almeida  had 
been  recalled ;  but,  reflecting  on  the  immense  import- 
ance which  such  an  acquisition  might  prove  to  the  in- 
terests of  religion,  Father  Torres  afterwards  resolved, 
spite  of  his  age  and  infirmities,  to  go  to  Vocoxiuva  him- 
self, which  he  accordingly  did  in  the  year  15G2.  Under 
his  auspices   a   church  was   speedily  erected  ;  and  no 


CH.  III.]  JAPAN.  43 

sooner  was  it  known  that  a  father  was  in  the  town, 
than  the  Christians  of  Firando  and  the  neighbouring* 
\ingdoms  flocked  thither  in  crowds.  Many  of  these 
poor  people  had  been  more  than  a  year  without  any 
opportunity  of  attending*  their  religious  duties,  so  that 
Father  Torres  was  occupied  nig-ht  and  day  in  hearing* 
their  confessions  *  for  they  were  so  engrossed  by  these 
pious  exercises  as  almost  to  live  in  the  church,  regard- 
less alike  of  sleep  and  of  refreshment.  Their  fervour 
was  still  further  increased  during  the  holy  season  of 
Lent ;  and  on  Good  Friday  they  accompanied  the 
father,  clothed  in  sackcloth,  and  with  crowns  of  thorns 
upon  their  heads,  to  erect  a  large  cross  upon  a  neigh- 
bouring* mountain ;  the  men  scourging  themselves  with 
disciplines,  and  the  women  shedding  tears  of  sorrow,  as 
they  went  along.  Then  with  Easter  came  a  change  in 
their  devotions;  and  as  they  had  hitherto  endeavoured 
to  show  their  sorrow  for  sin,  and  their  sympathy  with 
their  Saviour  by  voluntary  chastisement  and  penances, 
so  now,  in  the  true  spirit  of  the  Church,  they  sought  to 
unite  themselves  to  the  joy  of  His  resurrection  by  join- 
ing* in  the  procession  of  the  Blessed  Sacrament,  crowned 
with  flowers  and  clad  in  their  richest  and  most  costly 
apparel.  The  Blessed  Sacrament  was  carried  by  Father 
Torres  beneath  a  magnificent  canopy*  and  as  they 
neared  the  port,  and  the  ships  of  Portugal  fired  a  royal 
salute,  the  good  old  man  burst  into  tears  of  joy,  to 
think  how  the  cross  of  Christ  was  at  length  honoured, 
and  His  name  adored,  amid  a  people  who,  for  so  many 
ages,  had  set  up  the  worst  passions  of  the  human  heart 
as  the  objects  of  their  wildest  worship  and  most  pas- 
sionate admiration. 

Up  to  this  time  Sumitando  seems  to  have  taken  no 
notice  of  the  fathers,  in  order  probably  that  he  might 
avoid  rousing  the  jealousy  of  the  bonzes ;  but  he  now 
paid  a  visit  to  Vocoxiuva,  and  Father  Torres  immedi- 
ately waited  on  him,  begging  him  to  dine  at  their  house, 
as  the  king  of  Bongo  was  occasionally  in  the  habit  of 
doing*.   The  invitation  was  graciously  accepted ;  and  the 


44  JAPAN. 

Portuguese  merchants,  who  were  at  that  time  in  port, 
not  only  helped  the  hospitality  of  the  fathers  by  pre- 
paring a  mag-nificent  feast,  but  by  waiting-  themselves 
on  his  majesty  as  he  sat  at  their  table.  This  important 
matter  happily  concluded,  Father  Torres  conducted  Su- 
mitando  to  the  church,  where  he  was  almost  ravished 
out  of  himself  by  a  picture  of  the  Virgin  Mother  and 
her  Divine  Child,  whose  beauty  exceeded  any  thing" 
that  he  had  ever  before  seen  in  his  kingdom. 

One  of  the  brothers  conversed  with  him  for  some 
time  on  the  subject  of  the  Christian  law:  and  Father 
Torres  presented  him  with  a  gilded  fan  which  had  been 
brought  from  Miako,  and  upon  which  was  painted  the 
sacred  Name  of  Jesus,  with  a  cross  above  and  three 
nails  beneath.  The  king-  earnestly  desired  to  know  the 
meaning-  of  these  cyphers  ;  and  Brother  Fernandes  ex- 
plained to  him  that  it  was  the  sacred  Name  of  Jesus, 
which  Father  Torres  earnestly  wished  should  be  en- 
graved on  his  majesty's  heart,  seeing-  that  it  contained 
many  mysteries,  the  knowledg-e  of  which  was  needful 
to  salvation.  Sumitando  took  his  leave ;  but  in  his  an- 
xiety to  know  more,  he  was  ag-ain  at  the  father's  house 
directly  after  supper ;  and  after  giving-  him  a  short  ex- 
planation of  the  creed,  Brother  Fernandes  told  him  the 
history  of  Constantine  the  Great,  and  of  the  cross  which 
appeared  in  the  skies  when  he  was  about  to  give  battle 
to  his  enemies.  A  king-  himself,  and  with  the  spirit  of 
a  hero  burning-  in  his  bosom,  the  quick  mind  of  Sumi- 
tando seized  at  once  upon  this  story  and  made  it  his 
own.  Before  he  left  that  night  he  had  learned  to  make 
the  sig-n  of  the  cross ;  and  the  next  morning-  he  sent  a 
nobleman  to  tell  Father  Torres  that  he  would  become  a 
Christian  as  soon  as  an  heir  was  born  to  his  crown;  that 
to  do  so  before  would  only  create  disturbance,  and 
hinder  the  real  progress  of  religion ;  and  therefore  he 
besoug-ht  him  to  pray  to  God  that  his  desire  on  this 
head  rnig-ht  be  speedily  accomplished.  In  the  meantime 
he  craved  leave  to  have  a  cross  embroidered  on  his  royal 
robes,  in  order  to  show  that  it  was  indeed  engraven  on 


CH.  III.]  JAPAN.  45 

his  heart :  for  so  great  was  the  reverence  which  he  al- 
ready felt  for  the  sign  of  our  redemption,  that  without 
an  express  permission  to  that  effect,  he  would  not  ven- 
ture to  carry  it  publicly  about  him.  In  order  to  esti- 
mate to  the  full  the  heroism  of  this  request,  we  must 
bear  in  mind  that  the  death  of  the  cross  was  the  worst 
punishment  of  the  meanest  felons  in  Japan,  just  as  it 
had  been  in  days  of  old  among-  the  Romans.  It  was, 
therefore,  no  trifling  proof  of  sincerity  in  the  converts, 
that  they  could  bear  to  see  this  emblem  raised  aloft 
in  their  churches;  but  that  a  king,  and  one,  too,  so 
lately  instructed  in  the  faith,  and  who  had  not  yet  re- 
ceived the  grace  of  baptism,  should  have  reverenced  it 
so  highly  as  to  wish  to  bear  it  upon  his  person,  betokens 
an  inward  change  such  as  nothing  but  a  miracle  of  Di- 
vine grace  could  have  effected.  So  it  was,  however; 
and  having  received  a  favourable  answer  from  Father 
Torres,  he  caused  a  splendid  cross  of  gold  to  be  made, 
which  he  hung  round  his  neck  when  he  went  to  visit 
his  brother  the  king  of  Arinia,  at  whose  court  he  spoke 
so  eloquently  in  favour  of  the  true  religion,  that  the 
latter  also  resolved  to  become  a  Christian  as  soon  as  he 
had  terminated  a  war  in  which  he  was  then  eng-aged. 

Some  months  after  this,  Sumitando  once  more  made 
his  appearance  at  Vocoxiuva.  and  in  a  private  interview 
told  Father  Torres,  that  his  queen  having-  given  him 
hopes  of  an  heir  to  his  crown,  he  was  resolved  to  defer 
his  conversion  no  longer,  and  had  therefore  come  with 
thirty  of  his  lords  to  ask  for  baptism  at  his  hands. 
When  the  good  father  heard  this  declaration,  he  could 
not  refrain  from  crying  out  with  the  aged  Simeon, 
"  Now,  Lord,  Thou  dost  dismiss  Thy  servant  according 
to  Thy  word,  in  peace ;"  and  then,  following  up  the  idea 
in  his  own  words,  he  told  the  king,  that  since  his  life  could 
never  again  give  him  such  another  joy  as  he  was  feel- 
ing at  that  moment,  he  would  henceforth  ask  nothing 
more  of  God,  save  that  he  might  soon  depart  in  peace  ; 
and  for  the  rest,  he  earnestly  prayed  that  his  majesty 
might  prove  in  very  deec?  the  Constantine  of  Japan, 


46  JAP  AS. 

rivalling  that  emperor  henceforth  in  goodness,  as  he 
had  hitherto  done  in  courage.  The  greater  part  of 
that  night  Father  Torres  spent  in  tlie  diligent  instruc- 
tion of  the  royal  neophyte  and  his  train ;  and  very 
early  on  the  next  morning  these  latter  repaired  to  the 
church,  where  they  found  the  father  and  his  assistants 
waiting  to  receive  them.  They  first  repeated  the  Credo 
upon  their  knees ;  then  rising,  they  all  extended  their 
arms,  as  it  is  the  custom  of  the  Japanese  to  pray,  and 
Father  Torres  gave  them  a  short  but  earnest  exhor- 
tation ;  after  which  he  administered  the  sacrament  of 
Baptism  to  them,  beginning  with  the  king.  To  the 
latter  he  gave  the  name  of  Bartholomew,  by  which 
title  we  always  henceforth  find  him  distinguished  in  the 
ecclesiastical  annals  of  his  kingdom.  Then  Sumitando, 
rising  from  his  knees,  bore  testimony  to  the  sincerity 
of  those  who  had  been  baptised  with  him.  Perhaps 
he  feared  that  the  fact  of  their  being  his  attendants 
might  cast  suspicion  on  their  motives  in  accompanying 
him  to  the  font ;  and  he  therefore  sought  to  anticipate 
the  calumny  by  pledging  himself,  with  all  the  unsus- 
pecting frankness  of  his  nature,  for  their  future  fidelity 
to  their  religious  engagements,  assuring  Father  Torres, 
with  an  earnestness  quite  touching  in  an  Eastern  des- 
pot, that  though  he  knew  they  loved  him,  yet  was  he 
very  certain  they  would  never  have  done  for  his  sake 
what  they  had  that  day  done  for  the  sake  of  God. 
When  he  left  the  church  on  that  memorable  morning, 
Sumitando,  or  Bartholomew,  as  we  must  henceforth 
call  him,  was  so  filled  with  the  joy  and  consolation  of 
the  Holy  Ghost,  that  he  would  willingly  have  passed 
days  and  nights  in  conversing  upon  spiritual  matters 
with  the  father ;  but  war  had  been  declared  against 
him  as  well  as  against  his  brother,  and  to  his  great 
regret  he  was  obliged  to  depart  at  once. 

It  was  a  sacred  custom  among  the  Japanese  never 
to  set  out  on  a  military  expedition  without  having  first 
demanded  success  of  "  Mantiffen/'  the  god  of  war  in 
Japanese  mythology,  a  divinity  usually  represented  as 


CH.  III.]  JAPAN.  47 

wearing-  a  helmet,  and  having"  a  cock  with  open  wings 
by  way  of  a  crest.  The  troops  were  regularly  drawn 
up  before  its  temple,  and  every  soldier  salaamed  cere- 
moniously, lowering1  his  arms  and  kissing-  his  standard 
as  a  token  of  homage  and  adoration.  Great  then,  we 
are  told,  was  the  astonishment  of  all,  when  on  the  very 
evening  succeeding  his  baptism;  Bartholomew  rode  up 
to  the  temple,  and  set  his  army  in  battle-array  around 
it.  They  did  not  know  his  thoughts ;  they  did  not 
know  how  the  recollection  of  the  heathenish  idola- 
tries which  he  had  himself  formerly  perpetrated  before 
its  walls,  so  filled  him  with  indignation  for  the  de- 
frauded glory  of  the  living  God,  that  he  came  hither 
only  to  trample  and  destroy.  They  knew  it  soon,  how- 
ever; for  entering  the  temple  with  some  of  his  officers, 
he  commanded  the  soldiers  to  break  down  the  less 
esteemed  idols,  while  he  himself,  seizing  on  ManthTen, 
hacked  and  hewed  at  it  with  his  own  sword,  until  he 
had  cut  off  its  head.  Arrived  at  the  sent  of  war,  he 
took  care  to  profess  himself  a  Christian,  by  wearing  a 
white  robe,  upon  which  the  Name  of  Jesus,  a  cross,  and 
three  nails  (the  favourite  devices  of  his  fan),  were  em- 
broidered in  gold:  and  whenever  his  more  warlike  occu- 
pations would  allow  it,  he  occupied  himself  in  instruct- 
ing any  who  asked  it  of  him,  from  the  highest  officers 
to  the  lowest  soldier  of  the  army,  in  the  mysteries  of 
religion.  These  he  afterwards  sent  for  baptism  to  the 
Jesuit  fathers  who  visited  the  camp;  and  peace  was 
no  sooner  restored,  than  he  set  about  destroying  all  the 
idol  temples  in  his  dominions,  without  any  regard  to  the 
murmurs  of  the  bonzes,  whose  anger  he  had  formerly 
been  so  anxious  to  deprecate. 

Every  day  also  he  fed  great  numbers  of  the  poor  of 
his  dominions,  waiting  upon  them  himself  with  a  cha-  - 
rity  which  showed  how  completely  the  sweet  humility 
of  the  Christian  had  superseded  the  proud  fastidious- 
ness of  the  princely  heathen.  A  similar  feeling'  caused 
him  likewise  always  to  lay  down  his  sword  and  poniard 
(a  mark  of  deep  submission  among  the  Japanese,;  when- 


48  JAPAN. 

ever  he  went  to  visit  Father  Torres ;  nor  would  he  ever 
accept  of  a  seat  set  apart  from  the  rest  of  the  congre- 
gation in  church,  refusing*  it  on  the  ground  that  "  all 
Christians  as  Christians  were  equal  to  himself;"  so  in- 
tuitively had  he  seized  upon  that  grand  principle  of  the 
Christian  law,  which  teaches  that  all  men  are  alike 
in  the  sight  of  God,  excepting  so  far  as  their  own 
actions  may  tend  to  raise  or  lower  them  in  the  scale. 
The  queen's  aversion  to  the  faith  was  for  a  long  time 
the  only  cloud  upon  his  joy ;  and  when  at  length  she 
declared  herself  desirous  of  instruction,  he  was  so  en- 
chanted, that  in  his  warm-hearted  zeal  he  went  himself 
to  Father  Torres  to  acquaint  him  with  the  change. 

But  not  all  the  goodness  and  virtue  of  the  king 
could  reconcile  a  portion  of  his  subjects  to  the  destruc- 
tion of  their  idols,  and  the  open  scorn  which  he  seemed 
to  take  pleasure  in  exhibiting  towards  their  superstitions. 
On  one  occasion,  when  he  was  called  upon  to  worship 
the  statue  of  his  predecessor,  as  the  kings  of  Omura 
had  always  been  in  the  habit  of  doing  before  him,  he 
was  so  indig-nant,  that  he  dragged  it  from  its  costly 
shrine  and  bade  them  cast  it  on  the  fire.  Another 
time  he  gave  great  offence  by  refusing  to  join  in  a  su- 
perstitious feast  which  his  countrymen  used  to  offer  once 
a  year  to  their  deceased  relatives  and  friends.  On  the 
eve  of  this  festival,  most  of  the  citizens  leave  the  town 
and  ride  forth  to  the  place  where  the  dead  are  supposed 
to  assemble.  There  they  courteously  salute  the  spirits 
of  the  departed,  inviting  them  to  come  and  take  some 
refreshment  in  the  city;  after  which  they  return  in 
company,  the  living  and  the  dead  together ;  the  former 
conversing  all  the  way  as  if  they  really  believed  the 
latter  were  in  their  presence.  The  procession  is  headed 
by  torches,  and  the  city  is  illuminated  in  its  honour;  every 
house  is  gaily  lighted,  and  every  table  magnificently 
spread,  places  being  carefully  left  for  the  invisible  guests ; 
for  the  Japanese  imagine  the  soul  to  be  still  sufficiently 
material  in  its  nature  to  be  capable  of  deriving  nourish- 
ment from  the  more  subtle  portions  of  the  food.     After 


CH.  III.]  JAPAN.  49 

dinner,  they  g*o  and  visit  the  tombs  of  those  whom  they 
believe  they  have  been  entertaining- ;  the  night  is  spent 
in  running-  to  and  fro  throughout  the  city ;  and  the  next 
evening*  the  souls  are  reconducted  in  procession  to  the 
place  whence  they  came.  The  whole  country  is  lighted 
up,  in  order  that  they  may  not  lose  their  way;  and  the 
rooms  where  they  are  supposed  to  have  been  are  care- 
fully beaten  with  sticks,  ostensibly  to  prevent  any  dull 
spirit  from  linsrerin^  behind  and  so  becoming  embar- 
rassed  as  to  how  to  regain  its  companions,  but  aiso,  it 
would  seem,  from  an  unwillingness  to  meet  face  to  face 
a  solitary  ghost,  at  a  moment  when  their  courage  was 
unsupported  by  good  cheer  and  numerous  companions. 
It  is  difficult  to  imagine  a  superstition  more  absurd  in 
itself,  or  more  likely  to  be  productive  of  riot  and  dis- 
sipation in  its  mode  of  celebration ;  but  although,  in 
order  to  avoid  any  imputation  of  stinginess  towards 
the  dead,  Bartholomew  fed  in  their  stead  some  thou- 
sands of  the  living  poor  of  his  dominions,  he  could  not 
escape  the  indignation  which  the  bonzes  (the  only  real 
losers  by  his  departure  from  the  ancient  customs,)  every 
where  excited  against  him. 

Rebellion  is  the  natural  consequence  of  such  a  state 
of  feeling  in  any  kingdom  constituted  like  that  of  Ja- 
pan. Accordingly  certain  lords  of  the  court  conspired 
to  drive  Bartholomew  from  the  throne ;  and  in  order  to 
conceal  their  real  design,  they  feigned  a  desire  of  be- 
coming Christians.  The  king,  however,  could  not  be 
persuaded  that  men  hitherto  noted  for  their  hatred  of 
religion  should  so  suddenly  be  inspired  with  a  desire  to 
embrace  it ;  and  he  warned  Father  Torres  against  re- 
ceiving them  without  long  trial  and  preparation.  "We 
are  not  told  whether  they  ever  went  so  far  as  really  to 
ask  for  baptism ;  but  while  the  affair  was  pending,  they 
arranged  every  thing  for  the  intended  rebellion,  and  the 
king  of  Firando  was  engaged  to  make  war  on  Arima,  in 
order  to  prevent  that  monarch  from  coming  to  the  as- 
sistance of  his  brother.  Father  Torres  was  destined  to 
be  the  first  victim ;  they  therefore  persuaded  the  king 

E 


50  JAPAx\. 

that  lie  ought  to  be  invited  to  the  approaching-  baptism 
of  the  queen,  and  Don  Lewis,  a  Christian  nobleman, 
was  sent  to  invite  him.  The  feast  of  the  Assumption 
was  close  at  hand  when  he  arrived  at  Vocoxiuva,  and 
on  that  day  Father  Torres  was  to  take  his  final  vows 
as  a  Jesuit.  Being*  far  advanced  in  years,  and  very 
anxious  to  set  the  seal  on  his  religious  profession  before 
he  died,  he  resolved  not  to  depart  for  Omura  until  after 
he  had  done  so.  On  the  appointed  day  the  church  was 
crowded  both  with  natives  and  Portuguese  to  witness 
the  ceremony ;  and  when  the  venerable  old  man,  whom 
many  among-  them  had  seen  g-row  grey  in  the  service  of 
the  mission,  fell  on  his  knees  before  Father  Froes,  and 
pronounced  his  vows  with  many  tears,  and  all  the  fer- 
vour of  one  who  is  accomplishing  the  last  desires  of  his 
heart,  none  could  refrain  from  joining  their  tears  with 
his.  Immediately  afterwards  Father  Froes  fell  ill, 
which  caused  the  departure  of  Father  Torres  to  be  again 
deferred.  The  conspirators  in  consequence  became 
alarmed:  and  Don  Lewis  being  despatched  once  more 
with  a  most  urgent  message,  Father  Torres  resolved 
to  start  the  next  morning.  But  while  recommending' 
his  journey  that  day  in  the  Mass  to  'God,  he  felt  a  sud- 
den desire  to  put  it  oil  a  third  time ;  and  Lewis  was 
again  obliged  to  depart  without  him. 

The  devout  marvelled,  and  many  Christians  were 
almost  scandalized,  thinking  the  old  man  was  grown 
weary  of  labour ;  but  the  event  showed  that  a  higher 
than  human  wisdom  had  thus  arranged  it ;  for  on  his 
way  back,  Lewis  was  attacked  by  the  conspirators,  who, 
never  doubting  that  Father  Torres  was  in  his  com- 
pany, cut  the  whole  party  to  pieces  without  mercy, 
and  then  marching  back  to  Omura,  openly  unfurled 
the  standard  of  revolt.  Bartholomew  was  besieged  in 
his  own  palace;  but  brave,  strong,  and  full  of  confi- 
dence in  that  God  whose  cause  was  identified  with  his 
own,  he  cut  his  way  sword  in  hand  through  his  ene- 
mies, and  sought  a  temporary  refuge  in  a  forest  near 
the  city.      There  he  lay,  concealed  alike  from  friend 


CH.  III.]  JAPAN.  5J 

and  foe,  and  only  cared  for  by  a  poor  Chinese,  who 
brought  him  his  daily  food;  but  escaping*  afterwards 
to  a  fortress  near  Omura,  he  was  instantly  beleaguered 
by  the  army  of  the  rebels.  The  better  to  palliate  their 
conduct,  they  offered  to  lay  down  their  arms  if  he 
would  renounce  the  u  upstart  religion"  which  he  had 
embraced,  and  forbid  it  for  the  future  throughout  his 
dominions;  but  he  boldly  sent  them  word  that  they 
might  rob  him  of  his  kingdom,  but  not  of  his  faith ; 
for  that  he  valued  the  Cross  above  the  crown,  the  title 
of  Christian  above  that  of  king- ;  nevertheless,  that 
they  should  not  conquer  without  a  struggle;  for  he 
was  resolved  to  hold  out  to  the  last,  nothing-  doubting* 
but  that  in  the  end  the  God  in  whom '  he  trusted 
would  grant  him  the  victory  over  all  his  foes. 

Such  an  answer  was  not  likely  to  conciliate  his 
enemies,  who  now  pushed  the  siege  with  redoubled 
vigour.  But  Bartholomew  held  bravely  out;  he  knew 
not  that  any  one  was  coming  to  his  assistance,  yet  he 
would  certainly  have  died  fighting  on  the  ramparts, 
rather  than  have  yielded  an  inch  of  ground  to  his  assail- 
ants. Such  was  the  state  of  affairs  on  both  sides,  when 
one  morning  an  army  in  battle-array  was  seen  slowly 
winding  down  the  distant  hills.  For  a  time,  there  was 
fear  and  hope  and  anxious  questioning  on  either  side 
as  to  which  party  the  advancing  hosts  were  intended 
to  relieve.  But  Bartholomew  at  least  was  not  long 
in  doubt:  he  knew  the  standard  to  be  his  father's. 
The  old  man  himself  was  coming  to  his  aid ;  for, 
sternly  as  he  hated  the  Christian  creed,  he  would  not 
consent  to  see  the  crown  torn  from  the  brow  of  his 
son  by  men  whose  pretended  zeal  for  the  religion  of 
their  fathers  was,  as  old  Xengandono  was  well  assured, 
nothing  but  a  mask  for  the  concealment  of  their  own 
ambitious  designs.  Bartholomew,  encouraged  by  his 
father's  approach,  unfurled  his  standard  emblazoned 
with  the  Cross,  and  confidently  promising  vicorv  to 
his  men  beneath  that  all-conquering  sign,  rushed  out 
upon   the  foe.      Xengandono  fell  upon  them  at  the 


52  JAPAN. 

same  moment  from  behind ;  and  thus  attacked  both  in 
front  and  rear,  the  rebels  soon  fled  in  dismay,  leaving 
Bartholomew  not  only  master  of  the  field,  but  undis- 
puted monarch  of  the  kingdom  of  Omura. 

The  first  use  Bartholomew  made  of  his  recovered 
authority  was  to  reward  the  poor  Chinese,  who  had 
been  faithful  to  him  when  his  fortunes  were  at  the 
worst.  His  second  was  to  settle  the  Jesuits  at  Nan- 
gasaki;  for  recent  events  seem  to  have  given  him  a 
sort  of  insight  into  the  future,  and  the  facilities  offered 
by  this  seaport  town  for  escape  from  Japan  in  case 
of  necessity,  made  it,  he  thought,  a  desirable  residence 
for  the  fathers. 

Encouraged  by  his  brother's  example,  the  king  of 
Arima  soon  afterwards  became  a  Christian;  and  he  would 
have  proceeded  to  repress  idolatry  throughout  his  domi- 
nions, had  not  God,  whose  designs  are  inscrutable,  taken 
him  out  of  the  world  while  yet  in  the  first  fervour  and 
innocence  of  his  baptismal  regeneration.  He  died  in 
sentiments  of  the  deepest  gratitude  for  the  blessing  he 
had  just  received,  and  embracing  the  crucifix  which 
the  bonzes  vainly  strove  to  tear  from  his  dying'  grasp. 
Unfortunately  his  son  was  still  a  mere  child ;  and  for 
a  time,  at  least,  his  infidel  tutors  compelled  him  both  to 
persecute  Christianity  and  worship  idols ;  but  at  length, 
his  uncle  Bartholomew  interfering,  he  not  only  became 
a  most  zealous  Christian,  but  a  munificent  benefactor 
to  the  religion  he  had  embraced.  This,  however,  did 
not  occur  until  many  years  after  the  death  of  his  father; 
for  it  was  only  in  1580  that  he  received  baptism  at  the 
hands  of  the  visitor-general  of  the  Japanese  missions, 
and  in  the  same  year  he  founded  a  college  and  semi- 
nary in  the  city  of  Arima;  the  one  for  the  Jesuit  Fathers, 
the  other  for  the  youthful  nobility  of  the  kingdom, 
whose  education  he  from  that  time  forward  placed 
under  their  immediate  superintendence. 

With  equal  variations  of  fortune,  though  without 
any  such  decided  co-operation  on  the  part  of  the  court, 
Christianity  was  about  the  same  time  introduced  into 


CH.  III.J  JAPAN.  53 

the  kingdom  of  Goto.  The  king-  himself  was  the  first  to 
ask  for  missionaries  from  Father  Torres, — a  proceeding 
by  no  means  uncommon  in  the  early  annals  of  religion 
in  Japan;  for  the  Christian  law  wrought  such  a  change 
for  the  better  in  the  morals  of  the  people  (as  the  king* 
of  Satzuma,  himself  a  heathen,  explicitly  declared  in 
his  letter  to  the  provincial),  that  many  sovereigns,  how- 
ever unwilling*  to  submit  themselves  to  its  restraints, 
were  yet  anxious  enough  to  impose  them  on  their 
subjects.  Father  Torres  happened  to  have  no  priest 
at  his  immediate  disposal  at  the  moment  when  tins 
request  was  made ;  so  he  sent  Almeida  and  Lewis,  two 
Jesuit  brothers,  instead.  They  arrived  in  the  city  of 
Goto  in  the  year  1566,  and  were  most  graciously  re- 
ceived at  the  palace;  a  couple  of  saloons  were  arranged 
for  their  public  audience,  separated  from  each  other 
by  a  thin  screen  of  tapestry,  behind  which  the  queen 
and  her  ladies  could  see  and  hear  without  being  seen ; 
and  there,  in  the  presence  of  four  hundred  lords,  with 
the  king  himself  seated  on  his  throne,  Lewis  preached 
against  the  plurality  of  gods  with  so  much  force  and 
eloquence,  that  the  audience  was  mute  with  amaze- 
ment, and  the  king*  himself  only  ventured  to  express 
his  delight  by  slight  gestures  of  the  hand.  "When 
this  brother  had  finished  speaking,  Almeida  rose,  and 
offered  to  answer  any  objections  that  might  be  made 
against  the  discourse;  but  the  king,  replying  in  the 
name  of  all,  declared  with  a  burst  of  genuine  emotion, 
that  "  he  believed  in  one  God,  Creator  and  Lord  of  all 
things ;"  and  rising  instantly  from  his  throne,  the  as- 
sembly was  dissolved.  Unfortunately,  that  very  even- 
ing the  king  fell  ill ;  and  the  bonzes  every  where  pro- 
claimed his  illness  to  be  a  proof  that  their  gods  were 
not  stocks  and  stones,  as  the  brothers  had  declared, 
but  on  the  contrary,  the  mighty  dispensers  of  life  and 
death,  who  now  inflicted  this  punishment  on  the  king 
for  having  lent  a  favourable  ear  to  the  blasphemers 
of  their  power.  They  said  that  some  counter-charm 
was  needed  to  undo  the  spell  which  the  enchanters  (for 


54  JAPAN. 

such  they  termed  the  Jesuit  brothers)  had  put  upon  the 
monarch;  so  the  sacred  books  of  Xaca  were  brought 
in  grand  procession  from  the  temple,  and  a  few  pas- 
sages, accompanied  by  sundry  strange  contortions  of 
the  body,  were  read  over  the  sick  man.  The  brothers 
awaited  the  event  with  considerable  anxiety ;  for  if,  on 
the  one  hand,  the  king  now  recovered,  it  would  be  at- 
tributed to  the  incantations  of  the  bonzes,  while  if,  on 
the  other,  he  died,  the  odium  would  infallibly  be  cast 
upon  them,  and  they  would  run  no  small  risk  of  being 
torn  in  pieces  by  the  people,  who  wrere  passionately 
attached  to  their  sovereign.  In  this  emergency  they 
had  recourse  to  God,  who  alone  could  extricate  them 
from  their  dilemma;  and  while  at  prayer,  Almeida 
thought  an  interior  voice  spoke  to  his  soul,  bidding 
him  go  himself  and  heal  the  king',  putting  all  his 
confidence  in  Heaven.  He  followed  this  suggestion,  or 
inspiration,  call  it  which  you  will;  and  having  some 
knowledge  of  medicine  from  his  long  attendance  in  the 
hospitals,  went  boldly  to  the  palace  and  offered  to- 
prescribe.  The  patient  wras  none  the  better  for  the 
religious  ceremonies  of  the  bonzes ;  so  as  a  last  re- 
source Almeida's  assistance  was  thankfully  accepted, 
and  with  such  good  success,  that  five  days  afterwards 
recovery  was  complete.  The  queen  and  the  young 
prince  went  themselves  to  thank  him  for  his  services, 
and  the  king*  gave  him  leave  to  continue  his  sermons. 
But  the  superstitious  fear  excited  by  the  bonzes  had 
not  yet  subsided;  and  they  took  such  good  care  to 
keep  it  alive,  that  the  people  unanimously  refused  to 
attend.  Almeida  therefore  wished  to  depart ;  but  un- 
willing to  lose  him,  the  king  issued  a  proclamation, 
not  only  commanding  the  attendance  of  his  subjects, 
but  promising  to  assist  himself  with  his  eldest  son  at 
the  conferences  of  the  Christian  bonzes.  This  put 
an  effectual  check  to  the  panic :  conversions  followed 
thick  and  fast  upon  the  renewal  of  the  sermons;  and 
the  country  was  in  a  fair  way  of  being  converted  alto- 
gether, when  the  revolt  of  one  of  his  vassals  compelled 


CH.  III.]  JAPAN.  55 

the  king-  to  summon  his  troops  to  oppose  him.  Before 
he  took  the  field,  lie  wished  the  officers  to  swear  fide- 
lity after  the  idolatrous  fashion  of  Japan ;  that  is  to 
say,  by  partaking-  of  wine  which  had  been  offered  to 
the  idols,  with  heavy  imprecations  against  any  one 
failing-  in  allegiance.  The  general-in-chief  was  himself 
a  Christian;  and  in  order  to  comply  with  the  custom, 
and  yet  at  the  same  time  to  save  his  conscience,  he 
said  aloud  on  taking  the  cup,  that  he  was  only  going' 
to  drink  his  majesty's  health;  but  another  less  com- 
promising spirit,  knowing  how  many  might  be  led 
astray  by  such  an  example,  sternly  bade  him  beware 
how  he  drank  of  that  idolatrous  mixture;  and  then 
turning  to  the  king,  he  frankly  told  him  "that  such 
an  oath  was  considered  unlawful  by  the  Christians; 
but  that  if  they  were  allowed  to  swear  by  the  true 
God  and  Lord  of  all  things,  they  wrould  one  and  all 
fight  for  him  to  the  very  last  drop  of  their  blood,  and 
neither  fear  nor  interest  should  force  them  from  their 
allegiance."  The  king*,  so  far  from  being*  offended  by 
this  generous  freedom  of  speech,  instantly  gave  the 
permission  demanded,  and  the  Christians  took  an  oath 
of  fidelity  in  presence  of  Brother  Almeida ;  who  then 
gave  to  each  a  little  picture  of  our  Lord  and  His  Bles- 
sed Mother,  exhorting  them  to  do  their  duty  bravely 
and  to  call  with  confidence  upon  these  holy  names  in 
the  hour  of  battle.  The  combat  that  soon  afterwards 
ensued  was  long  and  bloody ;  but  it  ended  in  favour 
of  the  king,  who  had  good  cause  to  cong*ratulate  him- 
self on  his  toleration  towards  Ins  Christian  soldiers; 
since  the  very  heathens  were  fain  to  confess,  that  to 
their  courage  and  conduct  the  glories  of  the  day  were 
principally  owing. 

After  this  event  the  converts  became  more  than  ever 
anxious  to  have  a  priest  resident  among  them ;  and  in 
compliance  with  their  wishes,  Father  John  Baptist  de 
Monti  was  sent  to  them.  He  baptised  Prince  Lewis, 
the  king's  eldest  son,  and  was  soon  afterwards  succeeded 
on  the  mission  by  Father  Alexander  Valignan,  who  re- 


66  JAPAN. 

ceived  into  the  Church  the  wife  of  that  prince,  with 
seventeen  of  her  ladies.  The  bonzes  were  furious  at  this 
important  accession  to  the  ranks  of  a  religion  which 
they  detested •  and  they  threatened  the  king"  so  openly 
with  rebellion,  that  although  in  the  first  instance  he  had 
offered  no  opposition  to  his  son,  he  no^v  strongly  urged 
him  either  to  renounce  the  faith  altogether,  or  at  least 
to  conceal  it  for  a  time  j  adding-,  by  way  of  inducement 
to  this  course,  that  he  might  still  remain  a  Christian  at 
heart,  even  while  outwardly  complying  with  the  observ- 
ances of  the  heathens.  To  this  advice  the  young  prince 
nobly  replied,  "That  much  as  he  regretted  being  a 
cause  of  annoyance  or  danger  to  his  father,  yet  he 
should  be  unworthy  to  be  called  his  son,  if,  through  any 
baseness  or  want  of  courage,  he  dared  not  openly  profess 
what  he  inwardly  believed ;  and  that  as  he  would  far 
rather  forfeit  his  kingdom  than  betray  his  faith,  so  he 
was  quite  willing,  if  nothing  less  would  content  the 
rebels,  to  give  up  both  that  and  his  life  in  the  quar- 
rel." The  king  admired  this  courage •  but  he  had  not 
strength  of  mind  to  imitate  it,  and  an  edict  was  issued 
commanding*  all  his  subjects  under  pain  of  death  to  re- 
turn to  the  worship  of  the  idols.  By  this  decided  mea- 
sure he  hoped  to  appease  the  discontented  bonzes,  and 
to  shame  his  son  into  following*  the  example  of  the  other 
Christians,  who  would,  he  never  doubted,  gladly  save 
their  lives  at  the  expense  of  their  religion.  No  sooner, 
however,  was  the  sentence  published  than  the  converts 
flocked  in  crowds  to  the  church,  as  a  sort  of  public 
protestation  against  any  denial  of  their  faith;  and  Don 
Lewis  himself  took  his  station  in  the  porch,  thus  en- 
couraging them  to  martyrdom  both  by  words  and  ex- 
ample. Father  Valignan  preached  to  them  from  the 
pulpit  on  the  same  subject ;  and  when  he  told  tliem  of 
the  martyrs  of  the  primitive  Church,  their  enthusiasm 
was  excited  to  such  a  pitch,  that,  as  if  with  one  voice, 
all  that  mighty  multitude  exclaimed,  "  they  would  die 
in  the  cause."  The  very  children  shared  in  the  general 
enthusiasm  ■.  and,  dressed  in  their  best  apparel,  they  in- 


CH.  III.]  JAPAN.  57 

sisted  on  remaining  in  the  church,  hoping-  thus  to  attain 
with  their  parents  to  the  honours  of  martyrdom.  One 
little  fellow  clung'  to  his  mother,  crying',  "Do  not  die 
without  me,  for  I  also  will  go  to  heaven ;"  and  another 
told  Father  Valignan,  "  that  if  the  soldiers  sought  to 
kill  him  first,  he  would  place  himself  betwixt  them  and 
the  father,  so  that  they  could  not  pierce  the  one  with- 
out destroying  the  other." 

When  the  king'  heard  that  Don  Lewis  was  with  the 
other  Christians  in  the  church,  he  was  sorely  puzzled ; 
for  he  neither  dared  to  put  his  former  threats  into  exe- 
cution, lest  his  own  son  should  be  involved  in  the  mas- 
sacre, nor  yet  could  he  allow  Ins  authority  to  be  thus 
set  at  defiance  with  impunity.  He  was  still  wavering 
between  the  two  extremes,  when  Father  Valignan  stood 
at  the  foot  of  his  throne  to  plead  the  Christians'  cause, 
and  like  the  good  shepherd  of  the  gospel,  to  offer  his 
own  life  for  that  of  his  Hock.  He  told  the  king  that  if 
the  Christians  indeed  were  criminal  for  adoring  one  true 
God  and  one  only,  he  must  be  much  more  guilty  for 
having  induced  them  to  do  so ;  and  therefore  he  prayed 
his  majesty  to  be  content  with  his  life,  and  to  spare  the 
blood  of  his  own  subjects  and  children,  whom  he  would 
always  find  the  foremost  to  obey  him,  so  long  as  no- 
thing was  demanded  against  God  and  their  conscience. 
The  king  was  much  touched  by  this  generous  proposal ; 
but  he  had  not  the  strong'  mind  of  a  Bartholomew 
to  decide  for  himself,  and  therefore  laid  the  matter 
before  the  council  of  his  nobles.  Happily  they  also 
were  struck  with  admiration  at  the  magnanimity  of  the 
father ;  and  courage  being  prized  by  them  above  all  other 
virtues,  they  unanimously  resolved  not  to  condemn  a 
man  who  had  thus  fearlessly  offered  to  sacrifice  his 
life  for  the  good  of  the  people.  No  one  was  better 
pleased  with  this  decision  than  the  king  himself;  and 
thus  encouraged  by  his  nobles,  and  naturally  inclined 
to  mercy,  he  rescinded  his  late  edict  against  the  Chris- 
tians, and  peace  and  joy  were  restored  to  the  kingdom. 

His   son   soon   afterwards   succeeded  him    on    the 


58  JAPAN. 

throne,  and  no  further  religious  persecution  took  place 
at  Goto  until  after  the  death  of  that  prince,  an  event 
only  too  speedily  followed  by  those  imperial  edicts 
issued  at  Miako,  beneath  which  the  entire  fabric  of  the 
Christian  Church,  so  recently  given  to  Japan,  was  des- 
tined to  be  then,  and  to  this  very  hour,  totally  sub- 
merged 


CH.  IV.  j  JAPAN.  51) 


CHAPTER  IV. 

Deaths  of  Fathers  Torres  and  Villela.  Father  Cabral  appointed 
Superior  of  the  Missions.  In  Omura  Christianity  is  formally  re- 
cognised as  the  religion  of  the  State.  Conversion  of  the  second 
son  and  the  nephew  of  the  King  of  Bongo.  The  Queen  threatens 
to  murder  the  Fathers.  Conversion  of  the  King,  who  abdicates 
in  fa%-our  of  his  son.  Conversion  of  the  King  of  Arima.  An 
embassy  to  the  Pope  is  determined  upon. 

While  Christianity  was  making-  gradual  progress  at 
Miako  under  the  protection  of  Nobunanga,  and  was  yet 
more  rapidly  becoming*  the  dominant  religion  in  other 
kingdoms  of  the  country,  beneath  the  faith  or  favour  of 
then  respective  nionarchs,  each  and  all  of  these  flourish- 
ing missions  were  destined  to  sustain  a  heawy  blow,  in 
the  death  of  him  to  whom  they  might  almost  be  said 
to  have  owed  then  existence ;  for  if  St.  Francis  Xavier 
has  won  the  title  of  its  founder,  surely  Father  Torres 
may  as  emphatically  be  styled  the  nursing-father  of 
the  young  Church  of  Japan.  During  the  twenty  years 
and  upwards  which  he  laboured  in  that  country,  he  had 
united  the  austere  virtues  of  an  anchorite  with  the 
active  labours  of  a  missionary's  life ;  making  his  innu- 
merable journeys  bnrefoot,  even  in  the  depth  of  winter, 
and  never  in  all  that  length  of  years  using  any  other 
food  than  roots  and  herbs,  or  rice  boiled  in  water.  But 
he  who  had  baptised  30,000  infidels  with  his  own  hand, 
who  had  founded  fifty  churches,  besides  many  semina- 
ries and  colleges  for  the  better  dissemination  of  the 
faith,  had  long  been  sinking  beneath  the  labours  which 
these  multifarious  offices  entailed,  and  the  austerity  of 
life  by  which  they  had  been  accompanied.  Year  after 
year  he  had  written  to  Rome,  imploring  a  successor  in  the 
conduct  of  the  missions ;  and  when  at  length,  in  1570, 
Father  Cabral  landed  at  Sequi  in  that  capacity,  the 


CO  JAPAN. 

saintly  old  man  whom  he  superseded  could  only  soy 
again,  as  he  had  said  before,  on  another  but  scarcely 
to  him  more  joyful  occasion,  "  Now,  Lord,  Thou  dost 
dismiss  Thy  servant,  according-  to  Thy  word,  in  \>- 
And  in  peace  indeed  he  went,  with  the  thoughts  of  the 
thousands  he  had  given  to  God  to  gild  the  memories  of 
the  past,  and  shed  a  glowing1  glory  on  his  eternal 
future ;  at  a  moment,  too,  when  the  star  of  the  Church 
of  Japan  was  at  its  brightest,  and  before  one  of  its  rays 
had  been  quenched  in  that  sea  of  blood  in  which  ail  its 
beauty  and  its  radiance  were  destined  finally  to  set. 
Heaven  in  its  mercy  took  him  to  his  rest  while  yet  reli- 
gion was  tolerated  at  Miako,  and  more  than  tolerated, 
even  cherished  and  supported,  by  the  monarch  of  Bongo1, 
when  Omura  had  almost  declared  itself  Christian,  and 
Arima  and  Goto  only  awaited  a  favourable  moment  to 
do  the  same.  With  the  prospect  before  him  of  successes 
such  as  these  to  crown  the  cause  for  which  he  had  toiled 
and  suffered,  lived  and  died,  surely  the  prayer  of  his 
heart  must  have  been  fulfilled,  and  his  end  must  have 
been  full  of  peace.  He  was  taken  ill  only  a  few  weeks 
after  the  arrival  of  his  successor, — as  if  he  had  but  waited 
that  event  for  the  consummation  of  his  own  sacrifice ; 
and  having  prepared  himself  by  a  general  confession 
for  the  reception  of  the  last  sacraments,  he  was  carried 
from  the  church,  where  the  holy  viaticum  had  been  ad- 
ministered, to  his  chamber, — there,  amid  the  tears  and 
lamentations  of  his  religious,  to  yield  his  pure  soul  to 
God,  on  the  2d  of  October,  1570.  He  was  buried  at 
Sequi,  where  he  died,  and  his  panegyric  was  preached 
by  Father  Villela ;  but  perhaps  his  best  eulogium  may 
be  found  in  the  fact,  that  of  all  the  Jesuit  College  at 
Goa,  every  one  of  whose  members  had  offered  them- 
selves to  accompany  St.  Francis,  the  Saint  had  singled  out 
Father  Torres  as  the  most  worthy  to  share  in  the  merits 
and  labours  of  the  new  mission  of  Japan.  His  death 
had  been  preceded  about  four  years  by  that  of  John  Fer- 
nandez, the  brother  chosen  by  St.  Francis  as  his  second 
associate  in  the  enterprise,  and  to  whom  the  Japanese 


CH.  IV.J  JAPAN.  61 

Clmrcli  was  nearly  as  much  indebted  for  its  early  pro- 
gress and  prosperity;  and  it  was  followed  a  few  months 
afterwards  by  that  of  Father  Villela,  who  had  been  re- 
called from  Japan  only  to  expire  in  India,  exhausted  by 
labour  even  more  than  by  years. 

Father  Cabral  commenced  his  mission  as  Superior 
by  a  general  visitation  of  the  several  churches,  going- 
first  to  Miako,  and  from  thence  to  Mino  where  Nobun- 
anga,  then  at  the  zenith  of  his  g-reatness,  received  him 
with  courtesy  and  kindness.  From  Mino  he  passed 
on  to  Facata,  and  from  thence  to  Amanguchi,  the 
Christians  of  both  places  hailing-  his  arrival  with  ex- 
ceeding* delight.  The  inhabitants  of  the  latter  city  were 
among-  the  first  converts  of  St.  Francis  Xavier ;  and 
though  it  was  full  twenty  years  since  they  had  even  seen 
a  priest,  they  had  preserved  in  all  their  original  fresh- 
ness and  fervour  the  sentiments  of  religion  they  had 
imbibed  from  their  teacher.  Being  without  any  suit- 
able building*  as  a  public  church,  a  private  chapel  had 
been  arranged  in  the  house  of  one  of  the  faithful,  and 
here  they  assembled  every  Sunday  and  holiday  for 
prayer,  pious  reading,  and  the  collecting-  of  alms  for  the 
relief  of  the  poor ;  and  it  is  well  worthy  of  observation, 
that  under  God  much  of  this  happy  state  of  things  was 
owing  to  the  diligent  exertions  of  a  poor  blind  man,  who, 
as  he  earned  his  bread  by  playing-  the  flute  from  door 
to  door,  had  many  opportunities  hoth  of  kindling  the 
faith  in  hearts  where  as  yet  it  had  no  existence,  or  of 
rekindling*  it  in  those  where  it  had  begun  to  grow  cold. 
Many  others,  poor  like  himself  in  all  but  charity  and 
faith,  were  associated  with  him  in  this  labour  of  love ; 
and  as  an  instance  of  the  wonderful  blessing  which  at- 
tended their  efforts  in  the  cause  of  religion,  Father 
Cabral  tells  us  of  a  nobleman  who  came  to  be  baptised 
during  this  very  visitation,  and  who  frankly  acknow- 
ledged that  he  owed  his  conversion  to  the  instructions 
of  a  poor  man,  an  itinerant  vendor  of  combs  and  needles. 
Matthew,  for  this  was  the  name  of  the  comb-selling 
Christian,  made  it  a  point  of  conscience  to  discourse 


02  JAPAN. 

upon  religion  in  every  house  which  lie  visited  with  his 
wares ;  and  this  nobleman,  happening-  to  hear  him  one 
day  speaking*  on  the  subject,  was  so  much  struck  by 
the  force  of  his  reasoning*,  that  on  his  return  home  he 
immediately  cast  all  his  idols  into  the  fire.  His  friends 
were  greatly  alarmed,  for  they  thought  he  must  be 
mad  5  but,  with  a  surer  instinct,  the  bonzes  guessed 
that  he  was  about  to  become  a  Christian,  and  made 
their  complaint  to  the  governor  of  the  city.  Fortu- 
nately the  governor  was  no  friend  of  the  bonzes ;  for 
he  only  laughed  at  their  indignation,  and  dismissed  the 
accused  with  a  friendly  admonition  to  do  his  duty  by 
the  state,  whatever  might  chance  to  be  his  religious 
opinions. 

Numbers  of  similar  or  still  more  extraordinary  con- 
versions occurred  both  before  and  during  Father  CabraPs 
residence  at  Amanguchi;  nor  had  he  less  cause  to  be 
satisfied  with  the  progress  which  religion  was  making 
in  the  kingdom  of  Omura.  It  is  true,  indeed,  that 
Bartholomew  had  only  just  succeeded  in  quelling  a 
second  insurrection,  less  formidable  than  the  first,  yet 
having  its  origin  in  the  same  inveterate  hatred  of  the 
Christian  religion  ;  but  never  for  a  moment  had  he 
wavered  in  the  faith,  or  lost  trust  in  himself  or  con- 
fidence in  God.  "  Now  we  shall  conquer,"  he  exclaimed, 
on  hearing  that  the  rebels  had  set  fire  to  a  church; 
"  for  they  make  war  upon  God,  not  upon  us.  Now  we 
shall  conquer."  And  so,  indeed,  it  proved.  The  rebel- 
lion was  completely  crushed ;  and,  more  powerful  than 
ever,  Bartholomew  went  publicly  to  meet  Father  Cabral, 
and  to  conduct  him  in  triumph  to  the  capital  of  his 
kingdom.  A  less  resolute  character  might  have  been 
deterred  by  these  repeated  insurrections  from  any  fur- 
ther prosecution  of  his  designs  ;  but  Bartholomew  only 
found  in  them  fresh  motives  for  promoting  the  inter 
Almighty  God,  to  whose  especial  interposition  he  attri- 
buted his  victories.  No  sooner,  therefore,  was  he  rein- 
stated on  his  throne,  than,  assembling  the  great  council 
of  the  nation,  he  told  them  without  any  circumlocution 


CH.  IV.]  JAPAN.  63 

that  it  was  his  will  that  ail  the  idols  in  his  dominions 
should  be  destroyed ;  for  that  lie  should  be  the  most 
ungrateful  of  creatures,  if  he  any  longer  permitted  such 
an  insult  to  be  offered  to  God,  after  the  signal  protec- 
tion lie  had  just  received  at  His  hands.  The  princes 
readily  agreed  to  the  proposal ;  and  thus  Omura  was 
the  first  kingdom  in  Japan  where  Christianity  was  for- 
mally recognised  as  the  religion  of  the  state,  and  ido- 
latry altogether  abolished.  A  magnificent  church  was 
built  in  memory  of  this  event  :  and  after  Father  Cabral 
had  baptised  the  queen  and  the  remaining-  members  of 
the  royal  family,  he  returned  to  Bongo,  whither  he 
had  been  recalled  by  a  special  messenger  from  court. 

Thoug'h  the  kins-  of  that  country  had  hitherto  al- 
ways refused  to  become  a  Christian;  though  he  had 
studiously  absented  himself  from  the  public  instructions 
of  the  fathers,  and  had  even  resolutely  applied  himself 
to  the  study  of  the  different  sects  among'  the  bonzes  (in 
hopes,  as  he  afterwards  acknowledged,  of  finding*  suni- 
cient  reason  among-  them  to  preclude  the  necessity  of 
changing-  his  creed), — yet  he  had  never  ceased  to  favour 
the  progress  of  the  Christian  religion  throughout  his 
dominions,  nor  withdrawn  that  protection  from  the  mis- 
sionaries which,  from  his  friendship  for  St.  Francis,  he 
had  accorded  in  the  beginning.  Even  when  lie  himself, 
during  the  earlier  part  of  their  residence  at  Funay,  was 
driven  from  thence  by  an  insurrection  of  his  lords, 
and  the  fathers  who  remained  in  the  city  did  so  at  the 
peril  of  their  lives,  being  openly  threatened  with  death 
by  the  bonzes  of  the  victorious  party,  yet  he  did  not 
forsake  them.  If  he  could  no  longer  protect  them,  at 
least  he  did  what  he  could  to  show  his  feelings  in  their 
favour  by  repeated  messages  of  sympathy  and  kindness; 
and  no  sooner  had  he  regained  possession  of  the  city, 
than,  utterly  regardless  of  popular  opinion,  he  went  at 
once  to  the  Jesuit  College,  and  invited  himself  to  cele- 
brate his  triumph  by  dining  with  the  fathers.  The 
result  of  such  an  intimacy  might  easily  have  been  fore- 
seen :  though  he  himself  had  not  yet  resolved  upon 


64  JAPAN. 

changing1  his  religion,  others  of  his  family  were  more 
open  to  conviction;  and  when,  according-  to  the  custom 
of  the  country,  he  wished  his  second  son  to  hecome  a 
honze,  the  young-  prince  indignantly  refused,  alleging 
that  he  was  a  Christian  in  heart  already,  and  would 
sooner  die  than  be  made  a  partaker  in  the  hypocrisy  of 
that  idolatrous  priesthood.  The  queen,  whose  hatred 
of  every  thing-  Christian  had  won  her  the  sobriquet  of 
Jezabel  the  second,  was  furious ;  but  the  king  was  far 
less  angry  than  perplexed.  He  had  already  built  a  mag- 
nificent monastery,  and  set  aside  vast  revenues  for  the 
maintenance  of  the  future  bonze ;  and  more  than  all, 
he  felt  that  his  people  would  look  to  him  for  the  enforce- 
ment of  the  law.  Yet  he  loved  his  son  most  passion- 
ately ;  and  having  the  highest  opinion  of  the  Christian 
code  of  morality,  he  was  satisfied  that  should  the  boy 
become  a  Christian,  he  would  in  all  probability  be  far 
more  submissive  to  his  elder  brother  (the  state  reason 
for  making  him  a  bonze)  than  if  compelled  against  his 
will  to  enter  the  priesthood  of  a  religion  in  which  he  no 
longer  believed.  Accordingly,  Father  Cabral  was  re- 
called from  Omura,  the  young-  prince  was  intrusted  to 
his  care  for  instruction,  and  not  very  long  after  he 
was  publicly  baptised  in  the  church  at  Vosuqui,  the 
king  his  father  being  present  at  the  ceremony,  and  re- 
maining uncovered  and  on  his  knees  during  the  whole 
of  the  service ;  after  which  he  celebrated  the  event  the 
same  evening  by  a  magnificent  banquet.  But  the 
queen  was  implacable.  She  sent  her  son  word  that 
he  must  no  longer  consider  himself  as  her  child,  forbid- 
ding him  -even  to  appear  in  her  presence ;  but  Sebastian 
(for  this  was  the  name  the  young  prince  had  taken  in 
baptism)  only  answered,  "  That  he  was  indeed  grieved 
at  her  resolution;  but  that  he  trusted  the  Mother  of 
God  would  henceforth  supply  her  place,  so  that  he 
should  certainly  be  no  loser  by  the  change." 

The  conversion  of  one  so  young  in  years  and  so 
high  in  rank  made  a  deep  impression,  and  was  speedily 
followed  by  many  other  conversions,  both  among*  the 


CH.  IV.]  JAPAN.  65 

native  nobility  and  the  royal  princes  of  the  adjoining' 
kingdoms.  ."lost  of  the  former  were  men  of  Sebas- 
tian's own  age,  and  the  city  was  soon  edified  by  the 
visible  change  which  took  place  in  their  manners.  The 
better  to  keep  I  fervour,  the 

fath  m  into  a  congregation 

under  the  na  o  Lady.     Th 

met  eve:-".  rs ; 

after  which  th  :  debating  society,  dis- 

puting for  and  against  the  Christian  religion,  and  using 
for  :  -e  ail  the  objections  and  sophistries  of  the 

bonzes.  By  this  means  they  soon  acquired  so  great  a 
facility  in  uments  of  their  opponents, 

that  it  was.  said  r.  •  latter  would  enter  the  lists 

against  them  :  and  when  the  king's  eldest  son  put  this 
to  the  test  by  setting-  several  of  the  most  learned  of  the 
bonzes  to  argue  with  his  own  Christian  page,  he  was 
obliged  to  confess,  though  a  heathen  himself,  that  the 
latter  had  won  the  day. 

queen's  vexation  at  the  conversion  of  her  son 
was  greatly  increased  by  that  of  her  adopted  nephew, 
which  followed  almost  immediately  afterwards.  The 
son  of  a  nobleman  at  M  .'  y°ViTl~  man  nad  early 

been  adopted  by  her  brother  Chicata,  and  in  this  posi- 
tion had  so  entirely  won  the  esteem  both  of  the  queen 
and  her  husband,  that  they  were  on  the  point  of  giving 
him  one  of  their  daughters  in  marriage,  when  he  re- 
vealed his  intention  of  becoming*  a  Christian.  At  first 
Chicata  made  no  opposition;  but  urged  at  length  by 
the  fury  of  the  queen,  he  took  advantage  of  the  ab- 
sence of  the  king-  on  a  hunting*  expedition  to  send  for 
the  youth,  and  gave  him  his  choice, — either  to  renounce 
Christianity,  or  to  return  to  his  private  station  at  Miako. 
Most  perfect  was  the  spirit  of  self-sacrifice  in  which  this 
worldly-minded  proposition  was  met  by  his  adopted  son. 
"  He  was  grieved,"  he  said,  "  at  the  sorrow  of  his  father. 
Fear  of  this  v  had  too  long  withheld  him  from 

an  earlier  declaration  of  his  feelings.  But  now,  if  it 
needs  must  be,  he  was  ready  to  renounce  all ; — the  af- 

F 


66  JAPAN. 

fection  of  liis  father,  a  marriage  and  position  which 
princes  might  have  envied,  and  to  return  to  the  poor 
and  lowly  lot  from  whence  he  had  been  taken ;  for  no 
worldly  happiness  or  advantage  could  be  put  in  compe- 
tition with  his  duty  to  his  God."  But  having*  said  thus 
much  in  vindication  of  his  conscience,  Chicatora  im- 
plored his  father  in  the  most  tender  and  affectionate 
terms  not  to  chive  him  from  his  side,  hut  rather,  like 
a  true  parent,  to  prefer  his  eternal  interests  to  those 
which  were  merely  temporal,  by  asserting-  his  right  to 
choose  for  himself  in  a  matter  which  related  solely  to 
the  former ;  and  he  concluded  this  touching-  address  by 
a  solemn  promise  that  on  all  other  subjects  his  father 
should  receive  from  him  even  more  than  the  duty  and 
obedience  of  a  child.  Chicata  was  moved  by  these 
generous  sentiments;  but  his  sister  leaving-  him  little 
choice,  Chicatora  was  sent  to  prison,  and  carefully  ex- 
cluded from  all  communication  with  the  Jesuit  fathers. 
Notwithstanding"  their  vigilance,  however,  Father  Cabral 
contrived  to  send  him  a  letter,  exhorting-  him  to  perse- 
verance ;  and  by  the  same  means  Chicatora  conveyed 
him  an  answer,  expressive  of  his  sorrowful  anxiety  lest 
he  should  die,  or  be  put  to  death,  without  having-  had 
the  happiness  of  being-  baptised.  For  a  while  he  was 
left  in  prison  •  but  afterwards  the  queen  and  her  brother 
recalled  him  to  court,  where  they  did  their  utmost  to 
compensate  by  indulgence  for  the  ill-treatment  he  had 
hitherto  received  at  their  hands ;  nay,  in  the  hope  of 
shaking  his  resolution,  the}r,  with  the  most  cruel  inge- 
nuity, tried  each  opposite  method  in  turn ;  one  while 
tempting  him  to  despair  by  renewed  severities,  at  ano- 
ther endeavouring  to  seduce  him  from  his  fidelity  by 
the  allurements  of  criminal  pleasure. 

One  day,  while  thus  at  liberty  and  exposed  to 
the  last  and  far  more  dangerous  temptation — that  of 
sensual  indulgence,  he  rushed  to  Father  Cabral,  con- 
juring him  by  all  that  was  sacred  no  longer  to  defer 
his  baptism ;  and  the  father,  feeling  indeed  that  in  such 
a  perilous  position  he  would  not  be  justified  in  refusing 


CH.  IV.]  JAPAN.  67 

a  grace  which  was  so  much  needed  and  so  urgently 
asked  for,  at  once  complied  with  his  request.  It  was 
the  eve  of  St.  Mark,  but  Chicatora  was  baptised  by 
the  name  of  Simon,  which  in  Chinese  signifies  "in- 
structed by  a  master."  In  the  excess  of  his  joy,  he 
transgressed  the  bounds  of  prudence  by  appearing*  at 
court  immediately  afterwards  with  a  rosary,  as  a  kind 
of  profession  of  faith,  suspended  from  his  neck.  The 
queen  took  fire  at  this  open  defiance  of  her  will ;  Simon 
was  once  more  sent  to  prison ;  and  Chicata  went  to 
Father  Cabral,  imploring-  him  to  persuade  the  boy  to 
conceal  his  religion  for  a  while,  promising-,  in  his  own 
name  and  in  that  of  the  queen,  all  sorts  of  favours  in  case 
of  compliance,  and  threatening-  death  to  the  fathers  and 
destruction  to  their  churches  if  they  refused.  To  all  this 
Father  Cabral  answered,  "  That  he  would  rather  shed 
the  last  drop  of  his  blood,  and  see  every  Christian 
church  in  the  kingdom  reduced  to  ashes,  than  counsel 
or  sanction  so  impious  a  treachery ;  that  as  to  being 
allured  by  his  promises  or  moved  by  his  threats,  the 
Jesuits  had  not  left  the  riches  and  pleasures  of  Europe 
to  seek  those  of  Japan ;  voluntary  poverty  was  the 
portion  which  they  had  chosen  for  themselves  upon 
earth:  their  only  real  treasure  was  in  heaven;  and 
should  he  have  a  mind  to  put  them  in  possession  of 
that,  he  need  not  be  at  the  trouble  of  assembling-  his 
troops,  for  that  the  fathers  would  always  be  found  at 
home,  both  ready  and  willing-  to  die  the  moment  he 
signified  his  wishes  to  that  effect." 

Chicata  retired  in  a  g-reat  fury ;  and,  fully  believing 
that  he  meant  to  put  his  threats  into  execution,  Father 
Cabral  assembled  his  brethren  in  church,  there  solemnly 
to  offer  to  God  the  sacrifice  of  their  lives  whenever  He 
should  choose  to  demand  it  at  their  hands.  His  an- 
ticipation proved  correct.  Chicata  almost  immediately 
afterwards  ordered  out  his  troops,  giving-  them  an  es- 
pecial warrant  for  the  massacre  of  the  fathers;  but 
rumours  of  his  proceedings  had  already  gone  through 
the  city,  and  the  church  was  speedily  surrounded  by  a 


68  JAPAN. 

body  of  Christian  cavaliers,  who  came  armed  to  the 
teeth  to  defend  or  to  die  with  their  spiritual  fathers. 
The  Jesuits  would  willingly  have  declined  their  as- 
sistance; but  to  every  remonstrance  the  high-spirited 
soldiers  only  replied,  "that  they  were  come,  not  to  rob 
the  fathers  of  the  crown  of  martyrdom,  but  to  share  it 
with  them  ;  that  the  king-  not  being-  there  to  decide  be- 
tween them,  and  Chicata  being*  a  mere  private  indivi- 
dual like  themselves,  they  neither  could  nor  would  allow 
him  to  insult  with  impunity  God  and  His  Church." 

It  was  vain  to  oppose  them,  so  they  were  suffered 
to  remain  at  the  post  which  they  had  chosen;  but  by 
this  time  the  same  enthusiasm  had  spread  far  and  wide 
throughout  the  city,  and  at  an  early  hour  of  the  night 
the  watchers  in  the  church  were  again  disturbed  by  a 
loud  knocking"  at  the  gates.  No  one  doubted  but  that 
the  enemy  were  come.  The  cavaliers  sought  their 
arms ;  the  fathers  prostrated  themselves  before  the 
altnr;  but  on  opening  the  doors,  the  disturbers  proved  to 
be  only  a  number  of  ladies  of  the  highest  rank,  who  had 
come  as  Christians  to  die  with  their  fathers,  brothers, 
and  husbands  in  the  church.  Such  an  action  would 
have  been  a  wonderful  display  of  courage  and  fidelity 
any  where ;  but  in  Japan,  where  women  are  brought  up 
in  all  the  jealousy  of  eastern  seclusion,  thus  to  come  in 
the  darkness  of  the  night,  without  attendants,  and 
through  unfrequented  streets,  in  quest  of  martyrdom, 
showed  a  courage  as  marvellous  to  the  heathen  as  it 
was  edifying  to  the  Christian,  and  which  afterwards 
proved  abundantly  fruitful  in  the  conversion  of  the 
former.  Of  course  the  fathers  did  what  they  could  to 
induce  them  to  go  home;  but  with  no  better  success 
than  they  had  had  with  their  lords.  Sebastian,  how- 
ever, the  king's  son,  they  at  last  succeeded  in  persuad- 
ing to  retire ;  though  he  did  so  only  with  the  intention 
of  returning  the  instant  the  church  should  be  attacked. 

It  is  not  told  us  whether  Chicata  repented  of  his 
hasty  resolution  of  vengeance,  or  whether  he  was  afraid 
of  putting  it  into  execution  after  these  public  demonstra- 


CH.  IV.]  JAPAN.  69 

tions;  but  it  is  certain  that  the  assault  which  he  con- 
templated never  took  place ;  and  while  vainly  waiting" 
for  it,  Sebastian  contrived  to  have  an  interview  with 
Simon.  They  met  by  appointment  at  a  place  outside 
the  city,  the  royal  prince  coming-  to  the  interview  with 
a  train  of  noble  cavaliers,  the  poor  prisoner  attended 
only  by  a  couple  of  pages.  They  had  long*  been  united 
by  the  closest  bonds  of  friendship ;  and  the  meeting*  of 
David  and  Jonathan,  those  matchless  friends  of  Scrip- 
ture, could  hardly  have  been  more  affecting*.  Simon, 
who  was  still  almost  a  boy,  wept  as  he  mourned  over 
the  severity  of  his  father,  and  implored  his  friend,  by 
the  bonds  of  religion,  the  ties  of  friendship,  and  every 
thing*  he  held  sacred,  to  assist  him  in  his  miserable  con- 
dition. Sebastian  promised  all;  and  then  they  parted, 
the  one  to  his  voluntary  prison,  and  the  other  to  the 
palace.  There,  with  the  lament  of  Simon  yet  ringing- 
in  his  ears,  Sebastian  spoke  so  openly  and  vehemently 
of  the  cruelty  practised  on  his  friend,  that,  between 
vexation  and  alarm,  the  queen  and  her  brother  des- 
patched a  messenger  to  the  kin<r,  accusing-  the  fathers 
of  having*  induced  the  people  to  conspire  ag-ainst  him, 
and  to  set  Sebastian  on  the  throne  in  his  stead. 

The  young-  prince  hearing'  of  this,  thought  it  neces- 
sary to  go  to  his  father,  both  for  his  own  justification 
and  that  of  the  Jesuits ;  on  his  arrival,  however,  at  the 
king-'s  hunting-ground,  the  latter  assured  him  that  all 
explanation  was  unnecessary,  since  he  knew  too  well 
the  g-ood  conduct  of  the  fathers  to  believe  any  thing- 
evil  against  them.  On  the  other  hand,  the  only  answer 
which  he  vouchsafed  to  the  messeng-er  of  his  queen  was 
couched  in  the  shape  of  a  stern  rebuke  to  her  brother, 
whom  he  commanded  instantly  to  release  Simon  from 
prison  and  restore  him  to  the  palace;  for  that,  if  Chi- 
cata  rejected  him  as  a  child,  he,  the  king*,  would  still 
continue  to  acknowledg-e  him  as  a  nephew  and  a  son. 

The  intelligence  conveyed  by  this  double  embassy 
caused  the  king-  to  return  almost  immediately  to  Vosu- 
qui,  for  the  purpose  of  enforcing*  obedience  to  his  orders; 


70  JAPAN. 

but  the  queen  still  persisted  in  refusing*  her  consent  to 
the  marriage  of  Simon  with  her  daughter ;  and  weary 
of  her  obstinacy,  the  king,  who  was  at  length  resolved 
to  have  his  own  way  in  the  matter,  sent  Simon  for 
present  protection  to  the  Jesuits  at  Funay,  and  then  pro- 
ceeded to  settle  all  his  domestic  disputes  by  means  of  a 
divorce. 

Our  readers  are  already  aware  that  this  was  no 
very  difficult  affair  in  Japan.  His  majesty  had  merely 
to  choose  another  wife,  and  then  send  a  command  to 
the  ex-queen  to  depart  from  the  palace.  So  secretly 
had  the  whole  affair  been  managed,  that  she  was  ut- 
terly ignorant  of  the  second  marriage  of  her  spouse, 
until  drums  and  trumpets  announced  it  to  the  city ;  and 
she  was  rejoicing  in  her  triumph  at  having  expelled 
Simon  from  the  court,  when  the  royal  messenger  ar- 
rived with  the  tidings  of  her  own  disgrace. 

From  that  moment  peace  was  restored  both  to  the 
king  and  the  kingdom,  and  the  progress  of  the  former 
towards  the  Christian  religion  became  marked  and  de- 
cided. The  new  queen  and  her  daughter,  who  was 
espoused  to  Sebastian,  were  already  catechumens ;  and 
by  his  majesty's  desire,  Father  Cabral  attended  every 
day  at  the  palace  to  give  them  further  instructions. 
He  himself  was  always  present  at  these  lectures;  and 
it  was  soon  observed,  first,  that  he  had  begun  to  fast 
every  Friday  and  Saturday ;  then,  that  he  said  the 
rosary  every  day ;  and  at  last,  that  certain  little  idols, 
towards  which  -he  had  always  hitherto  testified  the  ut- 
most devotion,  had  been  destroyed  by  his  orders.  Still 
his  ultimate  intentions  remained  untold,  until  one  day, 
calling  one  of  the  Jesuit  brothers  into  his  chamber, 
he  declared  that,  if  he  had  not  hitherto  become  a  Chris- 
tian, it  was  not  from  want  of  willingness  or  of  devo- 
tion, but  that  he  had  thought  it  his  duty  first  to  search 
into  all  the  sects  of  his  native  land,  to  discover  if  aught 
like  the  truth  was  to  be  found  among  them ;  that  the 
deeper  he  had  penetrated  into  their  mysteries,  the  less  had 
he  found  to  content  the  conscience  or  satisfy  the  soul ; 


CH.  IV.]  JAPAN.  71 

that  this  seemed  to  him  to  he  the  prerogative  of  the  Ca- 
tholic Church  alone,  and  therefore  he  was  resolved  to  he- 
come  a  Christian;  but  in  order  to  do  so  without  disturb- 
ing- the  peace  of  the  kingdom,  he  had  determined  to  ab- 
dicate in  favour  of  his  eldest  son.  Then,  as  if  this  open 
declaration  had  all  at  once  kindled  the  desires  of  his 
soul  beyond  the  power  of  restraint,  be  bade  the  bro- 
ther hasten  Father  Cabral  to  the  palace;  and  no  sooner 
had  the  latter  made  his  appearance  than,  standing-  hum- 
bly in  the  midst  of  his  court,  he  demanded  baptism  at 
his  hands,  adding  that  he  would  take  the  name  of 
Francis,  since  he  felt  sure  he  owed  to  the  prayers  of 
that  departed  Saint  his  present  anxiety  to  become  a 
Christian.  Father  Cabral  warned  him,  that  when  once 
he  was  received  into  the  bosom  of  the  Church  he 
would  no  longer  be  permitted  the  liberty  of  divorce ; 
to  which  the  king  only  replied  by  taking-  an  oath  on 
the  spot,  that  he  would  remain  for  ever  faithful  to  her 
whom  he  had  lately  espoused.  He  was  then  solemnly 
baptised  by  the  name  of  Francis,' on  the  28th  of  August, 
1578,  in  the  fiftieth  year  of  his  age.  And  so  great  was 
the  change  which  instantaneously  took  place  in  his  soul, 
that  he,  who  for  twenty-seven  years  had  been  himself 
constantly  vibrating  between  truth  and  error,  now,  as 
he  left  the  church,  could  not  refrain  from  tears  at  the 
sight  of  his  idolatrous  subjects,  nor  avoid  expressing 
a  somewhat  naive  astonishment  that  any  one  could  hear 
of  the  true  God,  and  not  hasten  at  once  to  worship  and 
adore  Him. 

In  his  eagerness  to  cultivate  to  the  utmost  the  talent 
which  he  had  received,  he  lost  no  time  in  resigning  the 
government  into  the  hands  of  his  son,  and  in  hastening 
the  preparations  for  his  own  departure  from  Bongo. 
He  had  chosen  himself  a  residence  in  the  adjoining  pro- 
vince of  Jugo,  where  he  intended  to  build  a  town, 
which  should  be  inhabited  solely  by  Christians,  and 
should  be  g-overned  by  laws  of  a  very  different  charac- 
ter from  those  of  Japan.  His  arrangements  for  this  pur- 
pose being  at  length  completed,  he  left  Vosnqui  to  take 


72  JAPAN. 

possession  of  his  new  abode  on  the  feast-day  of  his  patron, 
the  holy  father  St.  Francis ;  and  such  was  the  joy  and 
exultation  of  his  soul,  that  his  journey  seemed  rather 
the  progress  of  a  victorious  monarch  than  the  depar- 
ture of  one  who  had  abdicated  his  throne.  Banners 
and  streamers  of  snow-white  damask,  embroidered  with 
crosses  of  red  and  gold,  floated  from  the  masts  of  the 
galle}'  in  which  he  sailed,  and  all  the  vessels  of  the 
little  fleet  that  followed  were  gaily  adorned  in  a  similar 
fashion. 

His  son  accompanied  him  to  the  frontiers  of  the 
kingdom,  and  then  they  parted ;  King-  Francis  pursu- 
ing his  way  quietly  to  Jugo,  and  the  prince  returning*  to 
Vosuqui,  there  to  assume  the  heavy  yoke  of  a  despotic 
government  over  a  fickle  and  uncertain  people.  He  had 
listened  to  his  father's  parting-  admonitions  with  every 
appearance  of  respect  and  submission,  and  showed  him- 
self in  the  be^-inninu'  both  anxious  and  willing  to  follow 
in  his  footsteps.  No  sooner  was  he  properly  inaugu- 
rated into  his  new  dignity,  than  he  presented  a  house 
and  colleg-e  to  the  fathers,  and  put  himself  under 
their  instructions  for  baptism ;  though  he  delayed  the 
actual  reception  of  that  sacrament  until  he  should  have 
succeeded  in  conciliating-  certain  lords  of  the  infidel 
party, — an  arrangement  to  which  his  father,  when  con- 
sulted on  the  subject,  very  willingly  assented,  having 
probably  a  more  intimate  knowledge  of  his  son's  real 
disposition  than  the  young  man  had  as  yet  accpiired  for 
himself. 

The  baptism  of  King  Francis,  and  the  anticipated 
conversion  of  his  son,  were  the  first  intelligence  which 
greeted  Father  Valignan,  when,  in  1579,  he  once  more 
landed  at  Cochinotzu,  as  visitor-general  of  the  mis- 
sions of  Japan ;  but  his  joy  in  these  happy  events  was 
soon  clouded  by  grief  for  the  misfortunes  which  fell 
upon  both  princes,  and  the  faithlessness  which  was 
thereby  elicited  in  one. 

Taking  advantage  of  the  abdication  of  its  monarch, 
and  of  the  discontent  of  the  infidel  party,  the  King  of 


CH.  IV.]  JAPAN.  73 

Satzuma  declared  war  upon  Bongo ;  and  Jugo,  the 
province  King*  Francis  had  reserved  for  himself,  was 
the  first  object  of  his  attack.  Chicnta  was  deputed  to 
make  head  against  the  enemy,  which  he  did  at  first 
with  considerable  snccess;  but,  grown  careless  by  re- 
peated victories,  he  at  length  suffered  himself  to  be 
taken  at  a  disadvantage,  and  notwithstanding'  the  pro- 
digies of  valour  by  which  he  and  his  adopted  son  en- 
deavoured to  retrieve  the  fortunes  of  the  day,  it  was 
irrevocably  lost.  For  one  brief  instant,  indeed,  Simon 
had  almost  succeeded  in  turning-  the  tide  of  battle  in 
their  favour;  but  from  the  vantage-ground  which  he 
had  gained,  he  saw  his  father  struggling  amidst  a  num- 
ber of  enemies,  wounded  and  worn  out  by  the  fatigues 
of  the  fray;  and  forgetful  of  every  thing  else,  the 
son  of  his  love  and  his  adoption  fought  his  way  sword 
in  hand  back  to  the  spot,  succeeded  in  bringing  him 
to  a  place  of  comparative  safety,  and  then,  covered  with 
wounds,  fell  dead  at  his  feet.  Maddened  at  this  sight, 
Chicata  rushed  once  more  into  the  midst  of  the  fight, 
seeking  a  death  which  he  was  not  destined  to  find ;  for 
though  wounded  and  carried  as  dead  from  the  field,  he 
finally  recovered,  and  lived  to  experience  that  sense  of 
disgrace  which  is  the  keenest  torture  of  a  haughty 
mind,  and  which  in  Japan  ever  attaches  itself  to  the 
idea  of  defeat. 

King  Francis  was  now  obliged  to  abandon  Jugo 
and  retreat  to  Vosuqui.  The  bonzes  every  where 
proclaimed  the  indignation  of  their  idols  as  the  cause  of 
these  disasters,  and  for  a  moment  the  fathers  almost 
feared  that  such  might  be  their  effect  on  the  feelings 
of  the  king'  himself-;  their  apprehensions,  however, 
were  quite  groundless,  for,  on  the  contrary,  he  met 
this  sudden  reverse  of  fortune  with  the  constancy  of  a 
great  mind  and  the  submission  of  a  g-ood  one.  "  Hap- 
pen what  may,"  he  said,  "  I  have  become  a  Christian, 
never  to  change.  God  only  knows  the  manner  of  life 
which  I  had  traced  out  for  myself  at  Jugo;  but  since 
He  has  willed  it  otherwise,  it  is  for  Him  to  command, 


74  SATAN. 

and  for  me  to  obey.'"  After  his  arrival  at  Vosuqui,  full 
of  these  heroic  sentiments  of  self-sacrifice,  he  applied 
himself  more  diligently  than  ever  to  the  care  of  his 
salvation,  drawing-  the  ties  of  religion  yet  closer  around 
him,  in  proportion  as  he  felt  himself  loosened  from  those 
or'  earth.  Night  and  morning-  he  made  a  meditation  on 
the  Passion  of  his  Lord,  and  said  the  beads  doily  in 
public  with  his  family  ;  he  confessed  and  communicated 
every  week,  and  his  fasts  and  austerities  became  so 
frequent  and  severe,  that  the  fathers  ventured  to  re- 
monstrate with  him  on  the  subject;  but  he  silenced  them 
by  replying,  "  that  for  the  very  reason  they  alleged,  and 
because  he  was  old  and  declining  towards  the  grave,  it 
was  needful  for  him  to  make  the  most  of  his  time,  by 
giving  good  example  to  his  subjects,  and  doing  penance 
for  the  sins  and  enormities  of  his  past  life." 

While  the  abdicated  monarch  thus  adhered  to  his 
principles  with  a  constancy  which  showed  how  entirely 
lie  had  "  counted  the  cost"  before  lie  embraced  them, 
his  son  weakly  and  shamefully  abandoned  the  faith 
without  a  single  effort  to  defend  it.  The  lords  of  the 
infidel  party  had  refused  to  march  against  the  enemy  un- 
til he  had  sworn  by  the  Kami  and  Chadotschi  to  restore 
the  ancient  worship  of  the  kingdom;  and  in  a  moment 
of  fear  and  infatuation  he  consented  to  take  the  oath. 

The  apostasy  availed  him  little :  the  King-  of  Sat- 
zuma  carried  every  thing-  before  him;  and  the  prince 
was  driven  from  province  to  province,  and  from  city 
to  city,  until  his  monarchy  of  only  a  few  months' 
standing*  was  almost  entirely  wrested  out  of  his  hands 
in  the  same  number  of  clays.  Nothing-  could  exceed 
the  anguish  of  King*  Francis  at  this  terrible  news.  It 
was  not  the  disgrace  which  had  fallen  upon  his  arms, 
nor  the  cities  which  had  been  lost  to  the  enemy,  nor 
the  empire  which,  after  having-,  with  a  fortune  un- 
paralleled in  Japanese  history,  retained  its  integrity  for 
full  thirty  years,  he  now  saw  shivered  to  piece 
was  the  perfidy  of  his  son  which  cut  him  to  the  quick, 
and  caused  him  in  the  privacy  of  his  own  chamber,  un- 


CH.  IV.]  JAPAN.  75 

prompted  "by  the  fathers,  or  by  aught  save  the  faith 
and  firmness  of  his  own  heart,  to  make  a  solemn  vow  to 
God,  "  that  though  even  the  Jesuit  who  had  brought 
him  to  the  knowledge  of  His  holy  name  should  renounce 
it,  and  though  the  Christians  of  Europe  should  cast  it 
forth  from  their  heart-,  and  though  (which  he  believed 
to  be  impossible)  the  Pope,  the  head  and  guardian  of  the 
faith,  should  prove  a  traitor  to  his  trust,  and  deny  it, 
yet  would  he  himself,  standing  alone  in  the  midst  of 
the  ruins  of  Christendom,  continue  to  confess,  acknow- 
ledge, and  adore  Him,  r:.e  one  true  God  and  Creator  of 
the  universe,  even  as  at  thai  very  moment  he  confessed, 
acknowledged,  and  adored  Him,  without  doubt  or  hesi- 
tation as  to  a  single  article  of  the  creed  which  had  been 
proposed  to  his  acceptance." 

-The  displeasure  of  his  father,  and  the  ill-success  of 
his  own  plan  of  expediency,  made  a  deep  impression  on 
the  prince;  but,  dispirited  and  ashamed,  it  was  some  time 
before  he  could  bring  himself  either  to  disavow  his  act, 
or  to  seek  the  presence  of  King  Francis.  Matters,  how- 
ever, soon  became  so  desperate,  that  no  other  course  was 
left  him  than  to  solicit  the  assistance  of  the  latter; 
and  the  old  king  once  more  took  the  reins  of  govern- 
ment into  his  own  hands.  He  left  his  retreat  very 
unwillingly ;  but  once  having  done  so,  he  brought  all 
his  old  wonted  energy  and  decision  to  bear  upon  the 
crisis  :  he  banished  the  lords  whose  evil  counsel  had  so 
nearly  ruined  his  son,  reunited  the  scattered  elements 
of  the  army,  drove  the  Satzumans  beyond  the  fron- 
tiers, and  having  thus  restored  peace  to  the  kingdom, 
and  the  kingdom  to  his  son,  retired  again  to  his  private 
residence  at  Vosftiqui. 

The  prince,  on  his  part,  taught  by  sad  experience, 
not  only  expressed  unbounded  contrition  for  the  past, 
but  promised  on  all  future  occasions  to  guide  himself 
entirely  by  the  advice  i>f  his  father  ;  and  precisely  at 
the  moment  when  this  reconciliation  was  effected  be- 
tween them,  Father  Valignan  returned  from  his  tour  of 
inspection,  in  the  course  of  which  the  young  king  of 


76  JAPAN. 

Arima  had  followed  the  example  of  his  father  and  uncle 
by  becoming-  a  Christian.  Indeed,  such  abundant  evi- 
dence of  the  rapid  progress  of  Christianity  had  every 
where  greeted  the  eyes  of  the  Father- Visitor,  that  he 
purposed  going  to  the  Pope,  and  representing  to  him 
the  spiritual  necessities  of  the  country,  as  to  both  pastors 
and  seminaries,  in  the  missions  committed  to  his  care. 
No  sooner  were  his  intentions  made  public,  than  the  two 
king?  of  Bongo,  with  those  of  Arima  and  Omura  (Lewis 
of  Goto  was  already  dead),  resolved  to  add  a.  solemn 
embassy  of  their  own,  for  the  purpose  of  laying-  at  the 
feet  of  his  Holiness  the  homage  and  obedience  of  the 
Christian  king's  of  Japan. 


CH.  V.]  JAPAN.  77 


CHAPTER  V. 

Two  Japanese  princes  and  two  nobles  start  with  Father  Valiguan 
for  Rome.  Their  arrival  at  Goa,  at  Lisbon,  at  Madrid,  and 
finally  at  Rome.  Their  reception  by  the  Po]^e.  Their  return  to 
Japan.  Important  changes  during  their  absence.  Death  of 
Nobnnanga.  His  successor  begins  to  persecute  the  Christians. 
Death  of  King  Francis  and  King  Bartholomew.  Exile  of  Justo 
Ucondono.     Decree  for  the  banishment  of  the  Jesuits. 

THREE-and- thirty  years  had  now  elapsed  since  St. 
Francis  Xavier,  with  his  one  Japanese  convert,  Paul  de 
St.  Foi,  had  landed  at  Kangoxima;  and  the  result  of 
Father  Valignan's  visit  of  inspection  sufficiently  proved 
that  in  this  short  period  the  number  of  Christians  had 
increased  to  150,000,  while  the  Jesuits  had  probably 
not  a  hundred  religious  of  their  order  to  meet  the 
spiritual  wants  of  this  vast  multitude, —  scattered  as  it 
was  at  wide  intervals  throughout  the  country, — still  less 
to  follow  \:t)  any  of  those  providential  circumstances 
which  continually  invited  them  to  the  formation  of  new 
missions. 

With  Christianity  rapidly  prog-res  sing-  in  the  coun- 
try, the  Father-Visitor  saw  at  once,  that  no  importa- 
tion of  foreign  missionaries  could  ever  he  made  suffi- 
ciently large  and  continuous  to  supply  the  demand  ;  he 
therefore  conceived  the  idea  of  forming  a  native  priest- 
hood, from  which  the  ranks  of  the  Europeans  might  he 
occasionally  recruited  in  the  beginning,  and  by  which, 
in  the  end,  their  necessity  would  he  altogether  super- 
seded. 

A  proper  foundation  for  seminaries  and  colleges  was 
the  first  essential  towards  carrying  out  this  plan ;  the 
second  was  a  resident  bishop,  by  whom  native  students 
could  be  ordained,  without  the  risk  of  life  or  loss  of  time 
and  money  which  rendered  the  supply  from  the  Indies 
so  difficult  and  precarious.     Reference  to  Rome  was 


78  JAPAN. 

needed  for  this  last  condition;  and  Father VaFgnan  im- 
mediately perceived  that  the  intended  embassy  would 
add  an  incalculable  weight  of  evidence  to  any  repre- 
sentations which  he  could  himself  make  on  the  subject. 
Both  he  and  all  the  other  fathers  felt  that  the  actual 
presence  of  these  foreign  princes  would  give  the  Pope 
and  their  religions  brethren  of  Europe  a  better  idea,  of 
the  importance  of  the  kingdom  which  had  been  added 
to  the  Church,  than  any  mere  verbal  description  could 
convey ;  while,  on  the  other  hand,  they  thought  it  by 
no  means  undesirable  that  the  Japanese,  who  considered 
themselves  to  be,  next  to  the  Chinese,  the  greatest  and 
wisest  nation  in  the  world,  should  learn  something  of 
the  wisdom  and  greatness  of  the  countries  from  whence 
their  new  code  of  religion  was  derived. 

For  both  these  reasons,  then,  he  willingly  undertook 
the  somewhat  onerous  charge  of  the  embassy,  which 
was  intended  to  consist  of  two  young  princes,  Mancio, 
nephew  and  representative  of  Francis,  king  of  Bongo, 
and  Michael,  who  went  in  the  name,  and  under  the  au- 
thority, of  Arima  and  Omura.  To  these  were  subse- 
quently added  two  other  nobles,  Julian  and  Martin, 
none  of  the  four  being  more  than  sixteen  years  of  age, 
but  wise  and  prudent,  Ave  are  told — as  indeed  their  sub- 
sequent conduct  sufficiently  proved — beyond  their  years. 
It  happened,  unfortunately,  that  all  these  ambassadors 
had  lost  their  fathers;  and  who  could  blame  their 
mothers  if,  terrified  at  the  prospect  of  so  long  and  peril- 
ous a  voyage  over  tempestuous  seas,  and  to  an  unknown 
people,  living  in  countries  distant,  in  their  ideas,  as  the 
farthest  ends  of  the  earth,  they  did  all  in  their  power 
to  dissuade  their  sons  from  the  proposed  undertaking. 
The  day  of  their  departure  was  indeed  a  day  of  lamen- 
tation and  sorrow.  The  poor  mothers  wept  over  their 
sons  as  if  they  had  already  lost  them  ;  and  though  Fa- 
ther Valignan  did  what  he  could  to  re-assure  them,  they 
still  remained  inconsolable,  and  he  felt  that  their  grief 
and  desolation  doubled  his  responsibilities  in  the  safe- 
guard of  their  sons. 


CH.  V.]  JAPAN.  79 

It  had  been  previously  arrang-ed  that,  in  order  to 
facilitate  their  journey,  and  escape  the  observation  of 
pirates,  who  abounded  in  those  unfrequented  seas,  they 
should  travel  without  an}'  such  train  as  would  otherwise 
have  befitted  their  rank.  Father  Valignan  therefore 
took  only  a  few  of  their  pages,  with  a  Jesuit  father 
and  brother,  to  assist  them  on  their  voyag-e ;  and  thus 
attended,  they  sailed  from  Nangasaki  on  the  25th  of 
February,  1582.  Their  faith  and  courage  were  destined 
to  be  severely  tried ;  for  even  in  the  commencement  of 
their  voyage  they  were  overtaken  by  a  tremendous 
storm,  which  for  seven  days  and  seven  nights  kept  them 
in  hourly  expectation  of  shipwreck  and  death.  Father 
Valignan  was  sorely  distressed  on  the'r  account,  and 
divided  his  time  between  prayer  to  God,  who  alone 
could  deliver  them  from  this  imminent  peril,  and  endea- 
vours by  counsel  and  exhortation  to  prepare  the  youth- 
ful travellers  for  the  worst  that  might  befal  them. 
That  worst,  however,  never  came ;  but  though  the  tem- 
pest ceased,  they  still  had  to  encounter  innumerable 
other  difficulties  and  dangers  before  they  succeeded  in 
reaching-  Goa.  There  they  were  received  by  the  Por- 
tuguese viceroy  of  the  Indies  with  all  imaginable  cour- 
tesy and  kindness ;  nor  was  this  favourable  feeling-  in 
their  regard  confined  in  its  exhibition  to  the  palace,  for 
they  were  welcomed  to  the  city  by  universal  public  re- 
joicings. The  archbishop  showed  them  every  fatherly 
attention  in  his  power ;  and  the  Jesuit  fathers  sent  a 
deputation  of  their  scholars  to  congratulate  them  on 
their  arrival, — a  compliment  with  which  the  young  am- 
bassadors appear  to  have  been  particularly  delighted. 

It  was  not  yet  the  season  for  the  departure  of  the 
European  ships;  and  while  awaiting-  that  event,  the 
Japanese  princes  took  up  their  abode  at  the  Jesuit  Col- 
lege, where  they  learned,  to  their  infinite  disappointment, 
that  Father  Valignan  would  be  unable  to  accompany 
them  further,  having  been  appointed  provincial  of  the 
Indies  during  his  absence  in  Japan.  Father  Rodriguez, 
however,  had  bec-n  named  to  conduct  them  to  Rome  in 


80  JAPAN. 

his  stead,  and  they  soon  became  as  much  attached  to  him 

f  had  hitherto  been  to  liis  >r.   Thevi 

himself  selected  the  .best  and  strongest  vessel  which  sailed 
from  Gon  that  year  for  their  passage ;  and  be; ' 
magnificent  gold  chain  and  reliquary  which  lie  pre 
to  each,  he  placed  three  thousand  crowns  at  their  dis- 
posal for  the  expenses  of  their  journey.     The  voyage  to 
Europe  proved  as  fortunate  as  that  to  the  Indii 
been  the  contrary;  and  without  any  adventure  worth 
recording",  they  cast  anchor  in  the  Tagus  on  the  10th 
of  August,  1584,  just  two  years  after  their  departure 
from  Nangasaki. 

Intelligence  of  their  approach  had  already  been  con- 
veyed by  one  of  the  fast-sailing  vessels  of  the  Indian 
fleet;  and  Lisbon  was  prepared  to  receive  them  in  the 
most  magnificent  manner.  From  motives  of  prudence, 
however,  Father  Valignan  had  forbidden  any  public  de- 
monstration in  their  honour  at  iirst ;  and,  worn  out  by 
the  fatigues  of  their  long  voyage,  the  princes  themselves 
were  only  too  glad  to  take  refuge  from  all  ceremonial 
in  the  professed  house  of  the  Jesuits.  The  morning 
after  their  arrival  they  waited  on  Cardinal  Albert,  the 
governor  of  the  kingdom,  to  whom  they  presented  a 
cup  of  horn,  fashioned  in  their  own  country,  and  richly 
set  in  silver.  The  few  following  days  were  spent  in 
examining  all  that  was  most  superb  in  the  way  of 
churches  and  palaces  that  the  city  could  boast  of;  and 
then  from  Lisbon  they  went  to  Ebora  to  visit  the  arch- 
bishop. It  chanced  to  be  the  feast  of  the  Exaltation  of 
the  Cross,  and  he  invited  them  to  assist  at  the  cere- 
monies in  his  church.  Immense  multitudes  flocked 
hither  to  behold  them ;  and  when  they  entered  the 
sacred  building  the  whole  congregation  burst  into  tears 
of  joy  to  see  them  bow  down  before  the  altar, —  ambas- 
sadors as  they  were  from  a  heathen  nation,  and  sent 
hither  in  its  name  and  at  its  bidding,  to  acknowledge 
before  heaven  and  earth  the  universal  sovereignty  of 
the  one  true  God. 

The  next  point  of  interest  in  their  travels  was  Ma- 


CH.  V.]  JAPAN.  81 

drid.  Philip  II.  received  them  in  the  midst  of  his 
family,  embracing*  them  affectionately,  and  bidding;  his 
children  do  the  same.  As  they  had  arrived  at  the 
palace  about  the  time  of  evensong',  he  invited  them  to 
attend  it  in  the  royal  chapel,  and  they  were  seated 
directly  in  front  of  the  altar,  "  in  order,"  says  the  old 
historian,  "  that  the  court  might  have  a  good  view  of 
their  persons;"  but  rather,  we  may  be  allowed  to  hope, 
that  they  might  themselves  have  a  good  view  of  the 
altar.  By  the  king's  orders  they  were  afterwards  taken 
to  see  every  thing'  most  worthy  of  notice  in  Ma*drid  and 
its  environs, — the  Escurial,  the  arsenal,  the  treasure- 
rooms,  with  their  incalculable  wealth  of  jewels,  &c. 
&c. ;  and  on  their  final  departure  for  Italy,  Philip  came 
in  person  to  take  leave  of  them  at  the  colleg'e,  his  royal 
munificence  following*  them  even  to  the  port  from  whence 
they  were  to  sail,  their  journey  through  the  rest  of  his 
dominions  being*  made  entirely  at  his  expense,  and  the 
largest  vessel  in  his  fleet  having*  been  fitted  out  by  his 
orders  for  their  voyage.  Their  passage  through  Italy 
was  one  triumphant  progress  from  beginning  to  end, 
until,  wearied  out  by  all  these  stately  honours,  the  young 
princes  literally  pined  for  the  moment  when,  at  the  feet 
of  Gregory  XIII.,  they  should  have  accomplished  the 
real  object  of  their  travels.  That  Pontiff  himself,  who 
seems  to  have  had  some  forebodings  of  his  approaching 
death,  was  not  less  anxious  for  their  arrival;  but  impa- 
tient as  all  parties  were,  the  strangers  were  compelled 
to  travel  slowly,  on  account  of  the  illness  of  one  of 
their  number.  They  were  still  at  two  days'  journey 
from  the  city,  when  the  general  of  the  Roman  forces 
met  them  with  several  troops  of  cavalry  for  their  escort ; 
but  as  they  were  anxious  (probably  from  motives  of 
devotion)  to  make  their  entrance  as  privately  as  pos- 
sible, they  preferred  doing  so  by  night,  and  without 
any  attendance. 

The  precaution  availed  them  little ;  all  Rome  was 
eagerly  awaiting  their  arrival;  multitudes  met  them 
even  at  the  gates,  and  conducted  them  in  triumph  to 

G 


82  JAPAN. 

the  professed  house  of  the  Jesuits,  where  the  general 
Claudius  Acqua  Viva,  at  the  head  of  200  of  the  society, 
was  ready  to  receive  them. 

They  were  led  directly  to  the  church,  and  the  Te 
Deum  was  intoned,  the  ambassadors  remaining*  pros- 
trate at  the  foot  of  the  altar ;  nor  could  Julian,  ill  as  he 
was,  be  induced  to  retire;  so  anxious  were  they,  one  and 
all,  to  thank  God  for  this  happy  and  perhaps  almost 
unlooked-for  fulfilment  of  their  enterprise. 

The  Jesuits  would  have  preferred  introducing1  them 
to  the  Pope  in  private;  but  finding-  that  they  came  as 
accredited  agents  from  the  kings  of  Japan,  Gregory 
chose  rather  to  give  them  a  public  reception,  with  all  the 
honours  usually  accorded  to  the  ambassadors  of  crowned 
heads.  The  day  after  their  arrival  was  accordingly 
fixed  upon  for  the  ceremony,  and  Julian  insisted  on 
joining  the  procession.  He  had  not  proceeded  far,  how- 
ever, before,  becoming  too  weak  to  sit  on  horseback,  he 
would  have  been  compelled  to  return,  had  not  a  noble- 
man taken  him  into  his  carriage,  and  driven  him  at 
once  to  the  Vatican.  Gregory  received  him  with  the 
most  fatherly  expressions  of  tenderness  and  joy,  giving 
him  bis  benediction  over  and  over  again ;  and  finally 
succeeded  in  prevailing  on  him  to  retire  before  the  com- 
mencement of  the  Consistory,  promising  that  he  would 
call  another  as  soon  as  he  should  be  sufficiently  recovered 
to  attend  it. 

The  rest  of  the  ambassadors  were  met  at  the  vine- 
yard of  Pope  Julius  II.  (the  spot  from  whence  all  great 
ceremonies  commenced  in  those  days)  by  the  Bishop  of 
Imola,  who  came  thither  to  compliment  them  on  the  part 
of  the  Pope.  A  procession  was  then  formed  by  the 
light  troops  and  Swiss  guards  leading  the  way,  followed 
by  the  carriages  of  the  Spanish,  French,  and  Venetian 
ambassadors,  and  by  all  the  Roman  princes  and  nobles 
on  horseback.  Among  these  last  rode  the  Japanese  am- 
bas  Eiders,  immediately  preceded  by  the  officers  of  the 
Pope's  household.  Mounted  on  magnificent  chargers, 
and  dressed  in  their  native  fashion,    they  formed,    of 


CH.  V.]  JAPAN.  83 

course,  the  principal  object  of  attraction  for  the  day. 
Nothing1,  we  are  told,  could  be  more  splendid  than  their 
attire,  more  grave  and  noble  than  their  mien  and  bear- 
ing*. Three  long-  robes,  one  over  the  other,  the  ground  of 
dazzling'  whiteness,  embroidered  with  birds,  flowers,  and 
foliage,  exquisitely  wrought  and  of  singular  brilliancy 
in  the  colouring,  were  partially  open  in  front,  and 
crossed  on  the  breast  by  a  scarf  of  the  same  material, 
knotted  behind  in  the  fashion  of  a  belt.  Their  feet  were 
sandalled ;  their  wide  sleeves  reached  only  to  the  elbow ; 
and  their  swords  and  sabres,  of  the  finest  tempered  steel, 
were  richly  encrusted,  both  sheath  and  handle,  with 
pearls,  precious  stones,  and  figures  variously  designed 
in  enamel.  Their  features  were  no  less  foreign  and 
striking  than  their  garments;  but  there  was  an  inno- 
cence on  each  youthful  brow,  and  a  noble  modesty 
in  every  look  and  attitude,  which  yet  more  effectually 
won  for  them  the  involuntary  admiration  of  all  be- 
holders. 

Mancio  Ito,  as  chief  of  the  embassy,  rode  first;  and 
as  the  foot  of  his  charger  touched  the  Bridge  of  St. 
Angelo,  the  guns  of  the  castle  fired  a  salute.  They 
were  answered  by  those  from  the  Vatican ;  and  long  ere 
the  warlike  echoes  had  died  away,  a  strain  of  delicious 
music  filled  the  air,  and  it  was  amid  a  flood  of  harmony 
that  they  drew  bridle  at  last  before  the  gates  of  the 
Vatican. 

In  the  Sala  Regia,  and  surrounded  by  his  cardinals, 
Gregory  XIII.  was  waiting  to  receive  them;  and  pros- 
trate before  his  Holiness,  and  holding*  the  credentials  of 
their  respective  monarchs  each  in  his  own  hand,  the 
ambassadors  declared  in  a  few  and  simple  words  the 
object  of  their  mission,  namely,  to  acknowledge,  in  the 
names  of  the  kings  of  Japan,  the  Pope  as  Christ's  vicar 
upon  earth,  and  to  tender  to  him  their  homage  and 
obedience,  as  head  of  the  Universal  Church  and  pastor 
of  all  Christian  people.  They  spoke,  of  course,  in  Ja- 
panese, and  Father  Mesquita  acted  as  interpreter;  but 
the  sight  of  these  stranger-princes,  so  young  in  years 


M  JAPAN. 

yet  so  strong"  in  faith,  and  the  knowledge  of  the  diffi- 
culties and  dangers  through  which  they  had  come, 
spoke  a  language  that  needed  no  translation.  Moved 
almost  to  tears,  the  Pope,  as  they  knelt  to  kiss  his  feet, 
raised  and  embraced  them  with  so  much  affection,  that 
they  afterwords  said  they  were  more  touched  by  his 
evident  tenderness  than  by  all  the  honours  which  they 
subsequently  received. 

These  preliminaries  over,  they  were  conducted  to  a 
platform,  where  they  stood  with  uncovered  heads  while 
the  letters  of  then  several  chiefs,  translated  in  like 
manner  by  Father  Mesquita,  were  read  to  his  Holiness; 
and  an  address,  called  an  obedience,  which  was  usual 
on  similar  occasions,  was  then  spoken  in  their  name  by 
one  of  the  fathers.  After  a  gracious  answer  from  the 
Pope,  they  were  once  more  conducted  to  the  foot  of  the 
throne,  when  they  were  saluted  and  embraced  by  the 
Cardinals  present.  Conversation  was  for  some  time 
carried  on  through  the  medium  of  their  interpreter;  and 
to  the  many  questions  put  to  them  concerning-  their 
country  and  their  travels,  they  answered  with  a  wisdom 
and  presence  of  mind  absolutely  marvellous  in  persons 
so  young-  and  unused  to  the  ceremonies  and  scenes  in 
which  they  thus  suddenly  found  themselves  the  prin- 
cipal actors.  They  dined  that  day  at  the  Vatican,  and 
afterwards  had  a  long-  and  private  interview  with  the 
Pope,  who  questioned  them  most  minutely  as  to  the 
state  of  Christianity  in  Japan;  and  more  than  once  the 
good  old  man  shed  tears  of  joy  at  the  rapid  pro- 
Lad  so  evidently  made.  He  promised  a  foundation  for 
the  seminary  which  Father  Valignan  had  already  com- 
menced at  Funay,  assigning  at  once  a  revenue  of  4000 
crowns  for  that  purpose.  This  was  at  a  later  interview, 
and  was  almost  the  last  official  act  of  the  Pope,  for 
only  a  few  days  afterwards  it  pleased  God  to  call  Gre- 
gory to  Himself;  but  he  thought  of  his  dear  Japanese 
to  the  last,  and  even  an  hour  before  his  death  sent  a 
messenger  to  inquire  after  the  health  of  young-  Julian. 
Me  was  mourned  by  these  poor  strangers  as  they  would 


CH.  V.]  JAPAN.  85 

have  mourned  for  a  father;  for  they  not  only  revered 
him  as  a  spiritual  superior,  but  had  learned  to  love  him 
as  an  earthly  protector. 

The  new  Pope,  Sixtus  V.,  did  what  lie  could  to  con- 
sole them,  by  showing-  the  same  unvarying-  kindness 
they  had  received  from  his  predecessor.  By  his  order 
they  were  ranked  with  the  other  ambassadors  when 
assisting*  at  his  coronation ;  and  he  not  only  promised 
a  future  bishop  to  the  Church  of  Japan,  but  also  con- 
firmed the  grant  in  favour  of  its  seminaries,  and  added 
two  thousand  crowns  to  the  four  already  set  aside  for 
that  purpose  by  Gregory. 

A  sum  of  three  thousand  more  was  also  assigned 
them  for  the  personal  expenditure  of  their  journey 
homeward ;  and  prior  to  their  leaving  Rome,  Sixtus  pro- 
posed to  confer  on  them  the  knighthood  of  the  Golden 
Spur,  an  honour  which  he  thought  would  be  particu- 
larly acceptable  to  princes  of  a  warlike  and  chivalrous 
nation.  Accordingly  the  ceremony  took  place  on  the 
eve  of  the  Ascension,  in  the  presence  of  all  the  foreign 
ambassadors  and  native  nobility  of  Rome.  The  Pope 
himself  presented  the  sword  and  girdle,  the  ambassa- 
dors of  Prance  and  Spain  buckled  on  the  spurs ;  and 
then  Sixtus,  throwing-  the  golden  chain  around  their 
necks,  gave  a  hearty  embrace  to  the  new  knights,  who 
thanked  him  for  the  favour  he  had  conferred  upon  them, 
and  pledged  themselves  solemnly  to  maintain  the  faith 
at  the  peril  of  their  lives,  —  a  pledge  which,  in  the 
after-years  of  persecution,  they  all  faithfully  redeemed. 
Their  last  public  appearance  was  in  the  Capitol,  where 
the  citizens  of  Rome,  both  princes  and  people,  met 
to  present  them  with  the  patricianship  of  the  city,  the 
patents  to  that  effect  being  made  out  on  coloured  parch- 
ment, and  stamped  with  a  seal  of  gold. 

Their  progress  back  through  Italy  was  made  in 
much  the  same  state  as  before.  They  were  particu- 
larly pleased  with  Venice,  which,  with  its  magnificent 
palaces,  churches,  and  public  buildings  of  all  descrip- 


SO  JAPAN. 

tions,  its  streets  of  water  and  crowds  of  gondolas,  must 
have  appeared  to  their  eastern  imaginations  as  a  veri- 
table creation  of  the  talisman  of  the  genii.  Fifty  of  its 
senators,  clad  in  their  scarlet  robes  of  office,  were  waiting 
to  receive  them  and  to  conduct  them  in  a  barge,  hung* 
with  crimson  velvet,  to  the  city;  and  after  an  inter- 
view with  the  doge,  during  which  they  presented  him 
with  a  sword  and  dagger,  the  workmanship  of  their 
native  land,  they  were  taken  to  see  the  public  build- 
ings, the  precious  merchandise,  and  various  manufac- 
tories of  the  queen  of  the  Adriatic.  Among  these  last 
they  were  particularly  interested  in  the  glass-works, 
that  article  being  altogether  unknown  at  that  period  in 
Japan.  Short  as  was  their  stay  in  A^enice,  time  was 
found  to  have  their  pictures  taken;  and  these  were 
afterwards  hung  up  in  the  great  hall  of  council,  among 
the  ducal  riders  of  the  city.  The  annual  procession 
also,  which  had  been  put  off' until  after  their  arrival,  was 
celebrated  with  more  than  ordinary  magnificence  in 
their  honour.  Among  the  historical  representations 
exhibited  on  the  occasion,  they  were  wonderfully  sur- 
prised and  delighted  to  discover  a  picture  of  their  own 
presentation  to  the  Pope,  which,  having  now  become  a 
fact  of  history,  was  made,  by  a  delicate  flattery  on  the 
part  of  the  Venetian  contrivers  of  the  fete,  to  take  a 
conspicuous  place  among  the  pageants  of  the  day. 

In  the  midst  of  all  these  pleasures  and  attentions, 
so  fascinating  and  full  of  danger  to  the  young,  and 
so  flattering  to  the  feelings  of  a  naturally  proud  and 
haughty  people,  the  youthful  princes,  we  are  told,  pre- 
served a  steadfast  piety  and  modesty  of  demeanour 
which  made  them  objects  of  real  admiration  to  all  who 
approached  them.  Grave  and  simple  as  ever,  they  pur- 
sued their  way,  pleased  with  the  honours  and  grateful 
for  the  pleasures,  but  as  undazzled  by  the  one  as  they 
were  uncontaminated  by  the  other;  contriving,  even 
in  the  midst  of  the  world,  to  lead  the  lives  almost  of 
religious;  confessing  and  communicating  every  week, 


CH.  V.J  JAPAN.  8? 

and  allowing'  neither  business  nor  amusement  to  pre- 
vent their  daily  devotions  and  attendance  at  Mass,  or 
their  punctual  examination  of  conscience  at  night. 

Europe  had  now  unrolled  all  her  shining-  treasures 
to  their  eyes,  and  among*  her  Catholic  nations,  making- 
it  a  pleasure  as  well  as  a  duty,  had  done  (says  an  his- 
torian of  those  times)  "the  honours  of  the  whole  Chris- 
tian world  to  them,  as  to  the  representatives  of  the 
infant  Churches  of  the  East;"  so  with  hearts  weary 
of  wandering-,  and  satiated  with  sight-seeing,  yet  filled 
to  overflowing-  with  the  religious  inspirations  which 
they  had  gathered  on  the  way,  they  prepared  to  return 
to  their  native  land. 

Lisbon  was  their  point  of  departure,  as  it  had  been 
that  of  their  arrival ;  and  they  were  joined  at  Goa  by 
Father  Valignan,  who  would  yield  to  no  one  the  plea- 
sure of  restoring'  them  to  their  parents,  and  who  there- 
fore accompanied  them  to  Japan. 

Many  and  unlooked-for  were  the  changes  which  had 
taken  place  in  that  country  during-  their  absence :  but 
the  greatest  and  most  unfortunate  of  all  for  the  interests 
of  Christianity  was  the  death  of  Nobunanga.  That 
proud  and  luxurious  chief  had  gone  on  from  one  degree 
of  prosperity  to  another,  until,  almost  forgetting  that  lie 
was  man,  he  sought  like  Nabuchodono?or  to  be  wor- 
shipped as  God ;  and  he  who  had  formerly  scouted  the 
teaching  of  the  bonzes,  who  had  scorned  their  idola- 
tries and  set  at  nought  their  superstitions,  now  caused 
himself  to  be  proclaimed  the  only  Lord  of  Nature,  and 
Creator  of  the  Universe.  A  magnificent  temple  was 
built  in  his  honour;  thousands  of  the  almost  innumer- 
able divinities  of  Japan  were  brought  together  to  be 
grouped  within  it ;  and  a  stone,  with  the  arms  of  Nobu- 
nanga engraved  upon  it,  was  set  up  in  the  midst,  to 
which,  as  the  representative  of  that  monarch,  and  under 
the  name  of  Xanthi,  the  adoration  of  the  people  was 
commanded  to  be  paid.  Not  a  Christian  obeyed  the 
summons ;  but  on  the  day  of  inauguration  vast  multi- 
tudes of  heathens  flocked  to  the  ceremony,  which  was 


88  JAPAN 

performed  on  a  scale  of  extraordinary  magnificence,  the 
king's  eldest  son,  and  future  possessor  of  his  throne,  be- 
ing- the  first  to  do  homage  to  the  idol  of  his  father. 

This  crime  seems  to  have  filled  up  the  measure  of 
his  iniquities  in  the  sight  of  Heaven,  and  to  have  brought 
his  worldly  greatness  to  a  close.  A  conspiracy  was 
soon  afterwards  formed  against  him ;  and,  betrayed  by 
one  of  his  own  creatures,  he  and  his  eldest  son  perished 
miserably  in  the  conflict  that  ensued.  Whether  he  died 
by  his  own  hand,  according  to  the  ordinary  custom  of 
the  Japanese  under  such  circumstances,  or  whether  he 
was  consumed  in  the  flames  of  his  own  palace,  which  the 
rebels  burnt  to  the  ground,  has  never  been  ascertained. 

Faxiba,  the  general  of  his  army,  rose  to  avenge  him, 
and  by  the  aid  of  Justo  Ucondono  defeated  the  rebels ; 
but  instead  of  restoring  the  government  to  the  children 
of  the  late  monarch,  he  assumed  it  himself,  under  the 
title  of  the  Cambacundono,  or  Sovereign  Lord, — a  dignity 
which  had  formerly  been  considered  even  more  exalted 
than  that,  of  the  Kumbo.  Such  political  transitions 
were  far  too  common  to  create  much  opposition-  and 
being  cunning  as  well  as  brave,  Cambacundono  soon 
found  means  of  augmenting  his  authority,  until  it  greatly 
exceeded  the  utmost  which  Nobunanga  had  ever  pos- 
sessed. 

It  is  painful  to  have  to  record,  that  the  ill-conduct  of 
the  young  king  of  Bongo,  the  degenerate  son  of  King- 
Francis,  was  the  primary  cause  of  this  dangerous  addi- 
tion to  a  power  already  too  great  for  the  well-being  of 
the  empire.  Instead  of  fulfilling  his  promise  of  becom- 
ing a  Christian,  he  had  not  long  been  left  in  sole  p 
sion  of  his  dominions  before  he  began  to  lead  a  most 
dissolute  life,  falling  from  one  criminal  excess  into  an- 
other, until  lie  concluded,  not  merely  by  persecuting  the 
Christians,  but,  under  a  false  imputation  of  treason,  pur- 
suing his  brother  Sebastian  with  a  degree  of  barbarity 
which  has  left  a  too  probable  suspicion  of  fratricide  at- 
tached to  his  name.  The  double  scourge  of  pestilence 
and  war  was  the  terrible  chastisement  of  his  sin.     A 


CH.  V.]  JAPAN.  89 

plagiie  broke  out  and  laid  desolate  the  land,  while  at  the 
same  time,  the  king  of  Satzuma  invading-  his  territories, 
the  unlucky  prince  would  have  found  himself  once  more 
disinherited,  if  Camhacundono  had  not  interfered  by 
sending-  an  army  under  Simon  Condera  to  his  assistance. 
Simon  was  a  zealous  Christian,  and  he  did  not  reinstate 
him  on  his  throne  without  rebuking-  him  severely  for  his 
wicked  conduct ;  until,  moved  by  his  reproaches,  or  by 
those  yet  harder  to  bear  of  his  own  conscience,  the  re- 
stored prince  made  up  his  mind  to  become  a  Christian  in 
earnest,  and  was  according-ly  baptised  by  the  name  of 
Constantine. 

A  second  reconciliation  with  his  father  followed  this 
event;  the  old  man  received  him  kindly,  but  his  heart 
was  utterly  broken ;  he  never  thoroughly  recovered  this 
last  disgraceful  proof  of  his  son's  inconstant  and  dan- 
g-erous  disposition ;  and  a  slig'ht  illness,  from  which  no- 
thing- serious  was  apprehended  in  the  beg-inning*,  proved 
fatal  to  a  constitution  enfeebled  by  sorrow  as  much  as 
by  ag-e.  He  died,  as  he  had  now  for  many  years  been 
living-,  in  the  purest  sentiments  of  faith  and  devotion ; 
never  during-  his  illness  did  he  speak  of  any  thing-  but 
God,  the  world  appearing*  to  be  as  completely  blotted  out 
of  his  memory  as  if  all  the  days  of  his  life  had  been  spent 
in  the  desert.  His  demise  had  been  preceded  by  that 
of  Bartholomew,  the  first  Christian  king-  of  Japan,  who, 
faithful  and  fearless  as  he  had  ever  been  in  his  life,  was 
not  less  heroic  in  the  hour  of  death.  "  Who  are  these 
Sanchez  and  Linus  V  he  said  to  one  of  his  attendants, 
who  in  the  moment  of  his  ag-ony  wished  to  speak  to 
him  of  his  sons.  "  Did  I  not  forbid  any  one  to  talk  to 
me  save  of  Jesus  and  of  Mary  ?"  And  with  these  sweet 
names  upon  his  lips  he  expired,  having-  previously  ad- 
dressed a  moving*  exhortation  to  his  children,  "to  be 
faithful  to  religion,  obedient  to  their  elder  brother,  and 
tender  and  affectionate  to  then1  mother  in  her  declining- 
years." 

With  these  two  princes,  the  peace  of  the  Church 
may  be  said  to  have  been  buried.     The  power  which 


90  JAPAN. 

Cambacundono  bad  both  asserted  and  shown  in  restor- 
ing- Constantine  to  bis  throne,  led  to  a  more  uncon- 
ditional submission  of  the  other  princes  of  Japan  than 
had  ever  been  given  to  their  chief  monarch  before  ;  and 
although  this  unlimited  authority  was  not  at  first  directed 
against  the  Christians,  yet  in  the  end  it  proved  fatal  to 
them,  by  constituting  the  private  edict  of  the  monarch 
the  universal  law  of  the  land,  whereas  in  former  times 
it  could  scarcely  have  been  put  into  execution  in  the  dif- 
ferent kingdoms  without  the  approbation  and  assistance 
of  their  several  rulers. 

In  the  beginning  of  his  reign,  Cambacundono  was 
far  from  being  unfavourable  to  religion,  and  the  chief 
officers  of  the  emperor  were  most  of  them  Christians ; 
Justo  Ucondono  being  governor  of  Tagatiki;  Simon  Con- 
dera,  general  of  the  army ;  and  Augustin,  a  most  zeal- 
ous and  distinguished  convert;  chief  admiral  of  the  fleet; 
many  of  the  ladies  of  the  queen's  household,  whom 
Cambacundono  singularly  respected  for  their  virtue  and 
modesty,  were  also  Christian;  and  he  was  even  heard  to 
say  that  he  would  himself  be  a  convert  to  the  new  reli- 
gion, if  it  were  but  a  little  more  indulgent  to  poor 
human  nature.  But  the  devil  seldom  allows  his  vota- 
ries to  stop  half-way  in  their  career,  and  the  u  human 
nature"  which  prevented  Cambacundono  from  embracing 
Christianity  led  him  at  last  to  oppose  it  with  war  to  the 
knife. 

Some  Christian  ladies  of  Arima  refused  to  become 
the  inmates  of  his  seraglio ;  and  the  bonze  who  had  un- 
dertaken this  infamous  commission,  revenged  himself 
for  the  scorn  with  which  his  proposition  had  been  re- 
jected, by  representing  the  Christians  in  general  as  being 
in  a  state  of  revolt.  By  a  refinement  of  malice,  he 
pointed  his  insinuations  more  especially  against  Justo, 
as  being  one  of  their  principal  leaders;  and  the  gover- 
nor of  Tagatiki  instantly  received  an  imperial  com- 
mand to  renounce  his  religion,  or  to  retire  from  the  king- 
dom. "  Tell  the  Cambacundono,"  said  the  noble  Chris- 
tian, "that  Justo  is  ready  to  lay  down  his  office  and 


CH.  V.]  JAPAN.  91 

his  life;  but  lie  dare  not  forget  bis  allegiance  to  bis 
God."  Tbis  was  enough  for  a  jealous  and  despotic 
king ;  Justo's  government  was  given  away  on  the  spot, 
and  be  prepared  to  leave  the  country  a  beggar  and  an 
exile.  The  banishment  of  a  nobleman  is  generally  ac- 
companied in  Japan  by  that  of  every  other  member  of 
bis  family,  except  in  the  case  of  Christians,  who  could 
always  escape  the  penalty  by  renouncing-  the  faith. 
When,  therefore,  Justo  went  to  acquaint  his  father  with 
the  sentence  which  had  been  pronounced  against  them, 
the  old  man  lifted  up  his  hands  and  eyes  to  heaven, 
thanking  God  for  having  chosen  them  to  be  the  first 
examples  of  fidelity  in  His  service,  adding  that  only  one 
thing  more  was  to  be  desired  or  prayed  for,  namely, 
that  they  might  all  have  the  happiness  likewise  of  shed- 
ding their  blood  in  the  cause.  Both  the  wife  and  chil- 
dren of  Justo  shared  in  these  heroic  sentiments*  the 
Christian  officers  of  his  household  also,  while  they  wept 
over  his  sentence,  besought  permission  to  share  it  with 
him  •  but  this  their  lord  declined,  urging  them,  on  the 
contrary;  to  retain  their  service  under  the  emperor,  since 
any  defection  from  it  would  only  confirm  his  suspicions 
of  the  loyalty  of  the  Christians.  The  very  heathens 
lamented  the  misfortunes  of  this  good  man  ;  many  of 
the  kings  even  offered  him  shelter  in  their  dominions  • 
but  Justo  refused  them  all,  probably  fearing  to  involve 
them  in  the  same  ruin  with  himself.  The  first  few 
months  of  his  banishment  he  therefore  spent  in  wander- 
ing with  his  family  through  forests  and  over  mountains, 
without  any  permanent  shelter,  and  deprived  almost  of 
the  common  necessaries  of  life.  At  length  his  friend 
and  former  convert,  Augustin,  succeeded  in  persuading 
him  to  take  refuge  in  his  states ;  and  the  emperor,  some 
time  afterwards  softening  a  little  towards  him,  sent  him 
into  more  honourable  exile  in  the  kingdom  of  Tango. 

The  conversion  of  the  queen  of  that  country  was  the 
consequence  of  his  residence  at  its  court.  Beautiful  and 
highly  endowed  herself,  her  husband  was  unhappily  a 
man  of  brutal  habits  and  violent  temper.    Justo  tried  in 


92  JAPAN. 

vain  to  convert  him ;  but  though  the  monarch  would 
not  follow  his  counsels,  he  at  least  repeated  them  to  his 
wife,  who,  struck  by  the  sublimity  of  the  doctrines  thus 
casually  and  imperfectly  brought  to  her  knowledge,  be- 
came extremely  desirous  of  further  instruction.     This 
was  no   easy  matter   to   accomplish;    for   the  jealous 
passion  of  her  husband  kept  her  (especially  during  his 
absence)  almost  a  prisoner  to  the  palace.     One  day, 
however,  she  managed  to  leave  it  in  disguise ;  and  going 
straight  to  the  church,  begged  for  baptism  of  the  father- 
superior,  who  chanced  to  be  there  at  the  moment.     He 
guessed  her  to  be  a  person  of  rank  from  her  intelligent 
conversation  and  dignified  demeanour ;  but  feeling  un- 
certain of  her  disposition,  he  put  her  off  until  a  later 
period.     The  next  day  she  wrote  to  him  by  one  of  her 
ladies,  requesting  a  solution  of  some  of  her  doubts  ;  and 
from  that  time  she  never  missed  a  day  in  sending  some 
one  or  other  of  her  attendants  for  further  instructions, 
until  by  this  means  they  were  all  of  them  converted. 
Astonished  and  delighted  at  this  unexpected  result,  she 
became  more  than  ever  anxious  to  obtain  the  same 
blessing  for  herself;   and  as  it  was  just  at  the  com- 
mencement  of  the   persecution,  and   there   was   little 
chance  of  his  being  able  to  confer  it  upon  her  in  person, 
the  father-superior  commissioned  one  of  her  ladies  to 
baptise  her  in  his  stead.     The  lady  chosen  for  this  pur- 
pose was  rich  and  beautiful,  and  destined  in  marriage 
for  one  of  the  greatest  nobles  of  Japan  ;  but  after  per- 
forming the  sacred  rite,  she  felt  herself  so  raised  above 
all  the  honours  of  the  earth  by  having  been  the  ad- 
ministrator of  a  life-giving  sacrament,  that  she  made 
a  vow  of  chastity  on  the  spot,  and  cut  off  her  hair  as 
a  sign  of  her  entire  renunciation  of  the  world.     The 
queen  herself,  who  was  baptised  by  the  name  of  Grace, 
was  destined  to  suffer  a  continual  martyrdom  at  the 
hands  of  her  husband,  who  hated  the  Christians,  and 
was  furious  with  her  for  having  adopted  their  tenets. 
He  loved  her  indeed  too  well  to  divorce  her ;  but  during 
the  thirteen  remaining  years  of  her  life,  he  treated  her 


CH.  V.]  JAPAN,  93 

with  inconceivable  cruelty,  frequently  holding*  a  drawn 
sword  to  her  bosom  to  terrify  her  into  renouncing-  the 
Christian  religion.  Grace,  however,  always  persevered 
in  the  same  answer,  that  he  might  take  her  life,  but  he 
could  not  force  her  to  betray  her  faith  ;  and  the  sequel 
proved  that  she  had  not  miscalculated  her  strength,  for 
in  the  early  times  of  the  persecution  she  was  one. of  the 
first  to  set  the  seal  of  martyrdom  on  her  fidelity.  There 
is  still  extant  a  beautiful  letter  written  by  her  to  one 
of  the  Jesuit  fathers,  in  which  she  expresses  her  joy  at 
their  resolution  of  remaining-  in  the  country,  and  gives 
an  account  of  the  baptism  of  her  infant  son,  who,  being 
at  the  point  of  death,  suddenly  recovered  his  health  on 
the  reception  of  the  sacrament,  which  was  administered 
to  him  by  Mary,  the  lady  who  had  performed  the  same 
office  for  herself,  and  whom  for  this  reason  she  was  in 
the  habit  of  calling-  her  spiritual  mother. 

The  banishment  of  Justo  was  followed  by  an  edict 
against  the  Jesuits,  who  were  commanded  to  return  to 
India  within  six  months  after  its  promulgation. 

They  immediately  assembled  at  Firando ;  and  it  was 
there  unanimously  agreed  that  rather  than  abandon 
their  neophytes  they  would  die  at  their  posts,  though 
in  order  to  avoid  all  unnecessary  cause  of  offence,  it 
was  resolved  that  the  churches  should  be  dismantled, 
and  service  performed  for  the  futnre  in  the  private 
houses  of  the  Christians.  No  sooner  was  this  resolu- 
tion known,  than,  with  only  one  exception,  all  the  Chris- 
tian chiefs  contended  with  generous  eagerness  for  the 
hazardous  honour  of  sheltering  them  in  their  dominions. 

That  exception  was  the  king  of  Bongo.  Constan- 
tine,  thus  tried  again,  again  was  found  to  waver  ;  and 
as  at  such  a  moment  to  waver  is  to  fall,  he  had  no 
sooner  complied  with  the  imperial  mandate  by  banish- 
ing the  Jesuits,  than  he  proceeded  on  his  own  account 
to  persecute  his  Christian  subjects,  and  finally  made  Ins 
appearance  at  the  court  of  Cambacundono  with  a  little 
idol  round  his  neck  in  token  of  apostasy.  To  his  ex- 
treme mortification,  the  emperor  repaid  his  meanness  by 


94  JAPAN. 

contempt,  while  the  other  kings,  who  had  had  the 
courage  to  hazard  all  for  their  principles,  were  soon 
afterwards  received  by  him  with  courtesy,  if  not  with 
favour. 

Matters  had  proceeded  only  thus  far,  when  the  Ja- 
panese ambassadors  arrived  at  Goa ;  and  in  order  to 
avoid  the  indignation  of  the  emperor,  instead  of  return- 
ing* as  a  Christian  priest,  Father  Yalignan  resolved  to 
present  himself  as  the  accredited  ambassador  of  the  vice- 
roy of  the  Indies. 

They  landed  at  Nangasaki  in  1590,  and  found  the 
kings  of  Arima  and  Omura  waiting  to  receive  them. 
Hither  also  soon  came  the  king  of  Bongo;  but  instead 
of  meeting  him  in  the  manner  he  expected,  Mancio  Ito 
reproached  his  royal  cousin  with  his  apostasy,  and  re- 
fused to  hold  any  communication  with  him  so  long  as 
he  remained  the  declared  enemy  of  religion.  Constan- 
tine  had  alread}^  begun  to  repent  of  his  conduct;  in- 
stead, therefore,  of  being  offended  at  this  noble  freedom, 
he  besought  his  young  relative  to  speak  to  Father  Va- 
lignan  on  his  behalf;  and  this  time,  at  least,  he  seems 
to  have  been  really  sincere,  for  during  the  remainder  of 
his  life  he  remained  perfectly  steadfast  and  fervent  in 
his  adherence  to  the  Church. 

An  audience  with  the  emperor  was  less  easily  ob- 
tained ;  but  having'  at  last  received  permission  to  that 
effect,  Father  Valignan  made  his  entry  into  Miako,  at- 
tended by  many  of  the  Portugiiese  merchants,  and  by 
the  young  princes  his  companions,  who  were  robed  for 
the  occasion  in  the  European  dresses  which  had  been 
presented  them  by  the  Pope.  Cambacundono  had  sent 
horses  and  litters  for  their  better  accommodation ;  and 
he  received  them  very  graciously,  appearing  to  be  de- 
lighted with  the  presents  of  the  viceroy,  and  inquiring 
very  minutely  of  the  princes  concerning  their  travels. 
He  was  much  pleased  by  their  performance  on  some 
European  instruments  of  music,  and  even  offered  to  take 
Mancio  Ito  into  his  service ;  but  having  other  projects  than 
those  of  courtly  ambition  in  his  heart,  the  young  prince 


CH.  V.]  JAPAN.  95 

respectfully  declined  the  proffered  honour.  Notwith- 
standing' all  this  apparent  cordiality  however,  Camba- 
cundono  could  not  be  induced  to  rescind  any  of  his  late 
edicts,  and  Father  Valignan  was  obliged  to  depart  from 
Miako  without  having-  accomplished  the  chief  object  of 
his  mission. 

During-  all  the  time  of  his  residence  there  he  had 
been  allowed  perfect  freedom  in  the  public  exercise  of 
his  priestly  functions ;  and  the  Christians,  who  had  for 
some  time  been  deprived  of  any  spiritual  aid,  save  such 
as  the  fathers  could  render  them  in  secret,  had  flocked 
to  him  in  crowds. 

From  Miako  lie  proceeded  with  the  Japanese  am- 
bassadors to  Arima  and  Omura,  to  deliver  to  the  re- 
spective monarchs  of  those  kingdoms  the  letters  and 
presents  which  had  been  sent  them  by  the  Pope ;  and 
then,  having-  fulfilled  the  last  duty  entailed  upon  them 
by  their  mission  to  Koine,  these  young-  princes  revealed 
to  Father  Valignan  their  intention  of  entering  the  So- 
ciety of  Jesus.  He  was  probably  already  aware,  in  some 
measure  at  least,  of  their  design;  for  they  had  mentioned 
it  to  Father  Acqua  Viva  at  Rome,  who  had  required  only 
the  consent  of  their  parents  as  the  condition  of  their 
acceptance  by  the  Society. 

They  were  therefore  immediately  admitted  into  the 
novitiate,  and  subsequently  became  active  missionaries 
in  their  native  hind ;  one  cf  them  surviving-  almost  to 
the  latter  days  of  the  persecution,  and  sealing-  his  re- 
ligious profession  in  his  blood. 

This  affair  being  arranged,  Father  Valignan  prepared 
for  his  final  departure,  having-  gained  nothing-  from  the 
emperor  save  permission  for  a  certain  number  of  the 
Jesuits  to  remain  a  few  months  longer  at  Nangasaki. 

Even  this  was  not  to  be  considered  in  the  light  of  a 
concession,  Cambacundono  detaining-  them  there  only 
as  hostages  for  the  safe  delivery  of  the  letters  and  pre- 
sents which  he  destined  for  the  viceroy,  and  which,  a 
doubt  having  been  thrown  on  the  validity  of  the  em- 
bassy, he  fancied  Father  Valignan  would  never  present. 


96  jArAir. 

He  also  chose  another  of  the  Jesuits,  whom  he  attached 
to  his  court  in  quality  of  interpreter,  and  he  seems  to 
have  afterwards  conceived  a  strong'  personal  friendship 
for  this  father  (Rodriguez  hy  name),  who  remained  in 
constant  personal  attendance  upon  him  during*  his  life, 
and  to  whom  we  are  indebted  for  an  account  of  his 
death.  Limited  and  ungracious  as  these  permissions 
were,  they  were  yet  far  too  valuable  to  be  refused;  and 
having-  secretly  dispersed  the  remaining'  Jesuits  through 
the  king-doms  of  the  Christian  king's,  Father  Valig'nan 
reluctantly  took  his  leave  of  Japan,  and  returned  to  tho 
charge  of  his  Indian  provinciate. 


CH.  VI.]  JAPAN.  97 


CHAPTER  VI. 

Cambacundono  sends  an  expedition  to  Corea  to  rid  himself  of  his 
Christian  subjects.  Eecal  of  Justo  Ucondono.  Death  of  Con- 
stantine.  Arrival  of  Franciscan  missionaries.  Their  imprudent 
conduct.  The  first  bishop  of  Japan  arrives.  Martyrdom  of 
Franciscan  fathers,  three  Jesuits,  and  two  children  at  Nan- 
gasaki.  Death  of  Cambacundono.  Execution  of  Augustine,  and 
of  the  Queen  of  Tango. 

Cambacundono  did  not  take  possession  of  the  throne 
of  Nobunanga  without  being*  smitten  by  the  same  am- 
bition which  had  preceded  the  fall  of  that  monarch. 
Having  received  the  homage  of  the  Japanese  as  their 
king,  he  desired,  like  his  predecessor,  to  be  adored  also 
as  their  god.  More  subtle,  however,  though  perhaps 
less  daring,  than  Nobunanga,  he  saw  that,  in  order  to 
obtain  the  object  of  his  unhallowed  ambition,  he  re- 
quired not  only  such  an  amount  of  foreign  conquest  as 
might  seem  to  entitle  him  to  claim  it,  but  likewise  the 
total  annihilation  of  the  Christian  converts,  who  had 
already  sufficiently  shown  that  they  would  never  be  ac- 
cessary to  this  great  national  sin;  and  he  thought  to  ac- 
complish his  twofold  purpose  by  declaring'  war  against 
Corea, — all  the  posts  of  honour,  and,  of  course,  of  danger, 
being  conferred  upon  the  leaders  of  the  Christian  move- 
ment. Augustine  was  therefore  made  generalissimo  of 
the  expedition ;  Simon  Condera  was  placed  next  to  him 
in  dignity;  and  the  kings  of  Arima,  Omura,  Bongo,  and 
many  others,  were  all  put  into  positions  of  distinction 
more  or  less  prominent.  The  leaders  being  Christians,  of 
course  the  bulk  of  the  army  was  Christian  likewise,  as 
each  chief  brought  his  own  subjects  into  the  field;  and 
thus  the  wily  emperor  calculated  that  in  any  case  his  ob- 
ject would  be  effected ;  for  if  the  expedition  failed,  the 
Christians  as  a  body  would  be  cut  to  pieces ;  and,  on 
the  other  hand,  if  it  should  prove  successful,  he  might 

H 


98  JAPAX. 

fairly  demand  the  coveted  honour  of  a  statue  for  him- 
self, while  the  newly  acquired  territories  would  present 
an  easy  mode  of  expatriating*  the  conquerors,  under 
colour  of  rewarding  their  services  by  the  governments 
of  Corea. 

At  first  he  had  intended  taking*  an  active  part  in 
the  enterprise  himself;  and  in  order  to  obviate  the  dan- 
gers of  a  regency,  had  conferred  his  present  title  and 
authority  upon  his  nephew,  while  he  took  that  of  the 
Teigo-Sama  to  himself.  By  and  by,  however,  a  not 
unnatural  jealousy  of  the  new  Cambacundono  seems  to 
have  induced  him  to  change  his  plan ;  and  as  he  could 
not  with  any  show  of  justice  deprive  his  nephew  of  a 
title  which  he  had  voluntarily  conferred,  he  got  rid  of 
him  in  the  usual  Japanese  fashion,  by  a  legalised  murder; 
the  friends  and  followers  of  the  unhappy  victim,  and 
even  his  little  children,  not  being  exempted  from  this 
barbarous  sentence. 

While  deeds  of  darkness  such  as  these  detained  this 
would-be  divinity  in  Japan,  the  Christian  warriors  in 
Corea  were  endeavouring  to  unite  the  duties  of  reli- 
gion with  the  necessary  distractions  of  a  time  of  war ; 
and  for  this  purpose  they  invited  some  of  the  Jesuit 
fathers  to  join  the  expedition,  both  for  the  conversion 
of  the  people  against  whom  they  were  going  to  fight, 
and  for  the  instruction  of  the  soldiers  whom  they  com- 
manded. The  zealous  missionaries  were  only  too  happy 
to  embrace  an  opportunity  for  the  still  more  extensive 
propagation  of  the  faith,  and  under  their  auspices  the 
camp  soon  became  a  house  of  prayer:  nor  did  the  Chris- 
tians fight  less  bravely,  because  devotion  had  superseded 
the  ordinary  dissipations  of  military  life.  Battles  were 
won,  forts  and  cities  were  taken,  every  where  the  Coreans 
fled  before  them  ;  each  fresh  despatch  became  merely  an 
announcement  of  a  fresh  success ;  and  at  length,  in 
his  gratitude  and  joy  for  a  new  empire  acquired  with 
such  marvellous  rapidity,  Teigo-Sama  recalled  Justo 
TJcondono  to  court.  Their  meeting  was  curious,  and 
characteristic  of  the  customs  of  the  nation.     "Justo," 


CH.  VI.]  JAPAN.  99 

said  the  emperor,  on  perceiving  the  disgraced  chieftain 
once  more  in  his  chamber  of  audience,  "  I  have  not  seen 
you  for  a  long-  time ;  but  now  I  have  work  for  you  to 
do."  With  a  profound  reverence  Justo  professed  him- 
self always  at  his  majesty's  service;  he  was  then  in- 
vited to  a  great  banquet,  and  all  his  honours  and  pos- 
sessions were  given  back  to  him.  Thus,  without  fault 
or  forgiveness,  accusation  or  acquittal,  as  he  had  been 
ruined",  so  was  he  now  restored;  the  emperor's  good 
pleasure  being  sufficient  reason  for  both. 

Strange  to  say — and  a  striking  commentary  it  is  upon 
the  shortcoming's  of  human  wisdom — nenrly  at  the  same 
moment  when  Justo  so  unexpectedly  recovered  all  that 
he  had  lost  for  the  sake  of  the  faith.  Constantine,  after 
perpetually  playing*  the  traitor  to  his  principles,  was 
as  suddenly  robbed  of  all  for  which  they  had  been 
bartered.  Having  incurred  the  displeasure  of  the  em- 
peror by  some  misconduct  in  the  Corean  war,  he  was 
stripped  of  his  dominions,  and  condemned  to  a  dreary 
exile  in  the  court  of  the  king  of  Satzuma,  the  deadly 
enemy  of  his  throne  and  house ;  but  though  he  never 
recovered  his  former  position  in  the  world,  yet  he  had 
the  far  greater  happiness  of  being  enabled  to  make  some 
compensation  for  the  cowardly  backslidings  of  a  former 
period  of  his  life  by  the  religious  steadiness  of  his  de- 
clining years.  Indeed,  from  the  hour  of  his  last  recon- 
ciliation to  the  Church  by  Father  Valignan,  he  had  never 
shown  any  symptom  of  his  former  weakness  :  his  life 
was  henceforth  formed  on  a  model  of  every  Christian 
virtue,  and  he  died  at  last  in  sentiments  of  contrition 
and  devotion  worthy  of  the  son  of  the  good  king 
Francis. 

Notwithstanding  the  services  of  the  Christians  in 
the  Corean  war.  the  penal  laws  were  still  in  force ;  but 
as  in  the  first  instance  they  had  been  the  result  of  a 
mere  ebullition  of  temper  on  the  part  of  the  emperor, 
he  might,  and  probably  in  course  of  time  he  would, 
have  either  ignored  or  abolished  them,  had  it  not  been 
for  the  inconsiderate  boasting  of  a  Spanish  captain,  who 


100  JAPAN. 

showing  on  a  map  the  vast  extent  of  his  sovereign's 
possessions,  and  being  questioned  as  to  the  mode  of 
their  acquisition,  represented  it  as  entirely  the  work  of 
the  missionaries,  who  first  contrived,  he  said,  to  convert 
the  people,  and  then  easily  induced  them  to  submit  to 
the  king  whom  they  served.  It  is  hard  to  say  whether 
malice  or  folly  were  the  motive  of  this  speech;  but 
whichever  it  was,  it  produced  a  suspicion  in  Teigo- 
Sama's  mind  which  could  never  afterwards  be  eradi- 
cated,— a  suspicion  which  he  bequeathed  as  an  heir-loom 
to  has  successors,  however  widely  they  might  differ  in 
policy  or  in  blood,  and  which  unhappily  to  this  very  day 
exercises  its  baneful  influence  upon  Japan,  in  the  form 
of  a  law  prohibiting*  the  admission  into  the  kingdom  of 
any  professor  of  the  Christian  faith. 

Another  circumstance  also  happened  about  this  time, 
which  tended  to  confirm  and  foster  this  suspicion,  once 
engendered :  this  was  the  line  of  conduct  pursued  by 
some  Franciscan  friars  who  arrived  from  the  Philippine 
Islands.  They  had  been  induced  to  take  this  step  by 
a  designing  impostor,  who  hoped  by  their  means  to  open 
the  ports  of  Japan  to  the  commerce  of  Spain,  and  con- 
trived to  persuade  them,  therefore,  that  the  emperor 
was  most  anxious  for  their  presence  in  his  dominions. 
It  was  true,  indeed,  that  Pope  Gregory  XIII.  had  is- 
sued a  Bull  prohibiting  any  other  missionaries  save  the 
members  of  the  Society  of  Jesus  from  labouring  in 
Japan ;  and  though  this  was  done  at  the  time  in  oppo- 
sition to  the  wish  of  the  Jesuits  themselves,  yet  the 
event  showed  the  wisdom  by  which  the  Holy  See  had 
been  guided;  for  notwithstanding  that  the  Franciscans 
brought  piety  and  zeal,  and  every  other  qualification 
which  could  fit  them  for  the  task,  yet  they  not  only 
produced  confusion  in  the  mission,  by  their  ignorance  of 
the  customs  and  peculiarities  of  the  people  with  whom 
they  had  to  deal,  but,  by  the  persecution  which  their 
imprudence  excited  against  it,  they  became  the  acci- 
dental causes  of  its  final  extinction.  At  first,  it  was  an 
anxious  question  of  debate  among  the  Franciscans,  whe- 


CH.  VI.]  JAPAN.  101 

ther  Pope  Gregory's  decree  was  binding'  on  them  •  but 
being-  already  in  possession  of  a  Bull  of  Pope  Sixtus  V., 
which  authorised  them  to  preach  throughout  the  Indies, 
in  which  the}7-  considered  Japan  to  be  included,  and 
burning  with  zeal  and  desire  to  carry  the  Name  of  Jesus 
to  the  most  distant  quarters  of  the  globe,  they  succeeded 
at  last  in  persuading  themselves  that,  the  prohibition 
having  been  issued  under  very  different  circumstances, 
they  were  justified  in  supposing,  that  under  the  present 
more  favourable  aspect  of  affairs  it  would  not  have 
been  enforced.  In  this  their  zeal  misled  them;  yet  who 
shall  blame  the  ardour  of  these  simple  and  earnest  men  ? 
If,  in  the  fervour  of  their  zeal,  they  overstepped  the 
nice  limits  of  that  obedience  which  is  the  only  safe 
guide  in  religious  undertakings,  yet  we  must  not  forget 
that  he  who  led  them  on  was  the  very  first  to  lay  down 
his  life  in  the  cause,  and,  now  a  martyr,  pleads  for  us 
in  heaven. 

The  Franciscans  presented  themselves  at  the  court 
of  Teigo-Sama  as  the  accredited  envoys  of  the  governor 
of  the  Philippines ;  and  underneath  the  shelter  of  their 
ambassadorial  character  they  were  permitted  to  settle 
at  Miako,  but  only  on  condition  of  refraining  from  every 
attempt  at  assembling  the  people,  either  for  preaching 
or  prayer.  No  sooner,  however,  had  they  taken  pos- 
session of  their  new  house,  than  they  proceeded  to  do 
both,  with  every  addition  of  circumstances  that  could 
give  publicity  to  their  conduct.  It  was  in  vain  that 
their  predecessors  in  the  mission  warned  them  that  they 
were  risking  the  safety  of  the  whole  Christian  Church ; 
in  vain  that  the  very  heathens  themselves  remonstrated 
with  them  on  the  folly  of  calling  the  emperor's  atten- 
tion to  their  as  yet  hardly  tolerated  residence  in  the 
country.  Their  pure  religious  zeal  found  ample  en- 
couragement in  the  great  body  of  the  people,  who,  ever 
careless  of  consequences,  and  only  rejoicing  in  the  oppor- 
tunity of  assisting  once  more  at  the  public  services  of 
the  Church,  eagerly  nocked  to  hear  them  ;  and  charmed 
at  the  sight  of  so  much  piety,  and  ignorant  of  the  real 


102  J A PAX. 

dispositions  of  the  emperor,  the  Franciscans  were  not 
unnaturally  led  to  conclude  that  the  timidity  of  the 
Jesuits  had  put  an  unnecessary  check  upon  the  fervour 
of  their  converts. 

To  counteract  any  ill  effects,  therefore,  from  this 
fancied  over-caution,  they  thought  it  necessary  to  ex- 
tend their  own  sphere  of  action  as  much  as  they  could ; 
so  from  Miako  they  went  to  Osaka,  and  from  thence 
to  Nangasaki,  where  the  Jesuits  received  them  with 
the  utmost  cordiality,  though  the  ill  effects  of  their 
imprudence  were  soon  felt  in  the  town.  Hitherto,  not-' 
withstanding  the  penal  laws,  the  fathers  in  that  city  had 
contrived,  by  a  system  of  most  consummate  prudence, 
to  pursue  their  ministerial  functions  undisturbed.  Un- 
der their  care  iSangasaki  had  become  emphatically  the 
Christian  town  of  Japan,  and  only  a  little  later  its  inhabi- 
tants celebrated  the  conversion  of  its  last  pagan  citizen 
by  an  especial  festival ;  but  the  arrival  of  the  new  mis- 
sionaries cast  a  shadow  over  their  smiling  prospects; 
the  public  services  in  their  church  excited  suspicion; 
and  the  Christians  were  prohibited,  by  sound  of  trumpet, 
from  attending-  Mass  or  sermon,  or  even  from  praying 
at  a  great  cross  which  had  been  erected  outside  the 
walls.  The  friars  themselves  were  banished ;  and  they 
retired  to  Osaka,  having  refused  the  refuge  which  had 
been  generously  offered  them  by  the  Jesuits. 

After  their  departure,  things  gradually  returned  to 
their  former  state,  a  result  greatly  facilitated  by  the 
conversion  of  the  governor.  He  was  a  young  man  of 
great  talent  and  powers  of  mind;  and  having  once  found 
himself  compelled  by  his  position  to  act  against  the 
Christians,  he  thought  it  only  consistent  with  justice  to 
ascertain  what  was  the  real  nature  of  their  tenets, — an 
inquiry  which  ended  in  his  soliciting  baptism  himself. 
The  doctrine  of  the  Incarnation  seems  to  have  particu- 
larly struck  him,  by  the  marked  contrast  which  it  pre- 
sented to  the  favourite  hero-worship  of  the  Japanese; 
for,  as  he  shrewdly  remarked,  there  was  nothing  incon- 
sistent or  inconceivable  in  the  idea  of  a  God  becoming 


CH.  VI.]  JAPAN.  103 

man  for  the  creatures  He  had  made ;  while,  on  the  con- 
trary, to  attribute  divinity  to  men,  often  the  worst  and 
most  wicked  of  their  species,  was  an  act  as  destructive 
to  morality  as  it  was  repugnant  to  sense. 

About  this  time,  Peter  Martinez,  the  new  Bishop  of 
Japan,  arrived  at  Nangasaki  with  his  coadjutor.  Steps 
were  soon  taken  by  the  principal  Christians  to  secure  his 
reception  at  court;  and,  after  some  little  demur,  he  was 
permitted  to  pay  his  respects  to  the  emperor,  who  showed 
him  the  same  kindness  and  consideration  which  he  had 
uniformly  exhibited  towards  the  Jesuit  fathers  whenever 
brought  personally  into  contact  with  them,  and  which 
seemed  very  strongly  to  characterise  his  subsequent  perse- 
cution of  the  Christians  as  the  effect  rather  of  a  mistaken 
diplomacy  than  of  any  real  hatred  of  the  Christian  faith 
and  its  professors.  The  period  of  the  Bishop's  arrival  in 
Japan  may  b*e  considered  as  the  breathing-pause  between 
the  commencement  of  persecution  and  its  final  adoption. 
The  sword  had  been  unsheathed ;  but,  except  in  a  few 
isolated  cases,  it  had  not  as  yet  drunk  the  blood  of  the 
Christians;  and  under  the  prudent  guidance  of  the  new 
Bishop,  united  to  the  personal  consideration  which  the 
emperor  entertained  for  the  Jesuits  individually  as  well 
as  collectively,  it  is  possible  that  he  might  even  now 
have  been  induced  to  sheath  it  again,  had  not  the  Fran- 
ciscan missionaries  still  continued  to  act  in  such  open 
defiance  of  his  orders,  that  he  became  more  and  more  con- 
vinced they  were  really  plotting  the  ruin  of  his  throne ; 
and  with  the  words  of  the  Spanish  captain,  their  country- 
man, yet  ringing  in  his  ears,  it  is  scarcely  to  be  wondered 
that  he  should  have  resolved  upon  the  most  summary 
measures  for  ridding  himself  of  their  presence.  Guards 
were  set  by  his  command  over  both  their  house  and 
that  of  the  Jesuits ;  and  this  order  being  misrepresented 
as  a  general  persecution  of  the  Christians,  it  was  every 
where  hailed  by  them  with  feelings  of  exultation  and 
joy.  Justo  Ucondono  rode  at  once  to  the  Jesuits 
house,  to  congratulate  them  on  their  good  fortune ;  and 
the  two  sons  of  the  Governor  of  Miako  likewise  entered 


104  JAPAN. 

the  city  for  the  express  purpose  of  sharing-  the  fate  of 
their  brethren  in  the  faith. 

The  elder  of  these  two  princes  having-  assembled  his 
servants  to  acquaint  them  with  his  resolution,  they  all 
agreed,  in  the  words  of  St.  Thomas,  to  "  go  and  die 
with  him ;"  and  on  his  objecting  to  one  who  was  a  re- 
cent convert,  and  who,  he  feared,  might  hardly  endure 
the  trial,  the  poor  man  made  such  earnest  remonstrances, 
that  at  last  he  was  allowed  to  accompany  them.  The 
younger  brother,  fearing  his  father's  safety  might  be 
compromised  by  the  religion  of  his  children,  went  to 
acquaint  him  with  the  fact  of  his  conversion ;  and  an 
alfecting  interview  took  place,  during  which  the  go- 
vernor, with  something  of  the  spirit  of  an  ancient 
Roman,  told  his  son  "that  passionately  as  he  had 
always  loved  him,  and  indeed  still  loved  him,  yet  he 
would  put  him  to  death  with  his  own  hand  if  the  em- 
peror should  give  him  an  order  to  that  effect."  Not 
less  firm,  but  with  the  firmness  of  a  Christian  spirit  as 
opposed  to  that  of  a  heathen,  was  the  young  man's  re- 
ply. "  He  had  revealed  his  religion,"  he  said,  "  to  se- 
cure, not  his  own  safety,  but  that  of  his  father;  and 
whether  he  met  his  death  by  the  actual  hand  of  the 
latter,  or  only  by  his  order,  he  would  still  have  a  double 
debt  of  gratitude  to  pay  to  him ;  one  for  the  temporal 
life  he  had  hitherto  enjoyed,  and  now  a  second  and 
still  greater,  for  that  eternal  life  which  he  was  about 
to  receive  through  his  means."  Having  said  thus 
much,  they  parted ;  the  son  returned  to  his  anticipated 
fate  in  the  city,  and  the  father  to  his  wife,  with  whom 
he  lamented  over  his  unhappy  fate;  for  that  if  a  mas- 
sacre of  the  Christians  should  be  ordered,  he  would  cer- 
tainly be  condemned,  by  virtue  of  his  official  duties,  to 
be  the  executioner  of  his  own  child. 

Nor  were  these  mere  isolated  instances  of  courage 

and  resolution.    Every  where  the  Christians  prepared  in 

me  undaunted  spirit  to  breast  the  waves  of  that 

persecution  which  was  destined  to   sweep  them  from 

the  face  of  the  earth ;  and  no  sooner  was  it  known  that 


Oil.  VI.]  JAPAN  105 

Teig'o-Sama  desired  to  have  a  census  of  his  Christian 
subjects,  than  men,  women,  and  children  flocked  into 
Miako  to  inscribe  their  names  upon  the  list,  hoping 
thereby  to  win  for  themselves  a  martyr's  crown.  Va- 
rious interesting  anecdotes  are  told  of  the  heroism  dis- 
played upon  this  occasion;  and  among-  them  we  find  a 
curious  instance  of  the  mingling-  of  the  old  pagan  pride 
with  the  new-born  zeal  of  the  Christian  convert  in  the 
history  of  a  good  old  man  called  Andrew.  He  had 
been  a  renowned  warrior  in  his  day;  and  now,  in  the 
eightieth  year  of  his  age,  and  the  first  of  his  conver- 
sion, he  was  most  anxious  to  die  for  Jesus;  but  he 
could  not  understand  the  necessity  of  dying  as  Jesus 
had  died,  that  is  to  say,  without  remonstrance  or  resist- 
ance; passive  endurance  was  as  yet  but  simple  cowardice 
in  his  eyes ;  "  he  would  die,  indeed,"  he  said,  "  right 
gladly  with  the  good  fathers  who  had  brought  him  to 
a  knowledge  of  the  Christian  religion ;  but  first  he 
would  avenge  their  quarrel,  kill  all  he  could,  and  then, 
and  not  till  then,  would  he  lay  down  his  life  for  Christ." 
In  vain  his  son  assured  him,  that  if  lie  would  merit  the 
martyr's  crown  he  must  not  resist  the  sword ;  the  old 
warrior  could  not  comprehend  this  doctrine;  and  he  had 
worked  himself  up  into  a  fit  of  real  indignation  at  the 
fancied  cowardice  proposed  to  him,  when  he  chanced  to 
enter  an  apartment  where  his  daughter-in-law  was  em- 
ployed with  her  Christian  servants  in  making  garments 
of  that  peculiar  kind  which  the  Japanese  always  wore 
in  the  hour  of  execution ;  and  when,  in  answer  to  his 
inquiries,  they  told  him,  half  in  jest  and  half  in  earnest, 
that  they  were  preparing  these  robes  to  die  for  Jesus, 
his  simple  honest  heart  was  so  touched  by  their  patient 
resolution  that  he  burst  into  tears,  declaring  that  he 
also  would  die  as  they  did. 

In  truth,  however,  the  emperor  had  not  as  yet  made 
up  his  mind,  either  to  injure  the  Jesuits,  or  to  shed  the 
blood  of  the  Christians  wholesale ;  and  this  he  caused  to 
be  intimated  to  the  Bishop,  accompanied  by  an  express 
declaration,  that  his  edict  was  directed  solely  against 


IOC  JAPAN, 

the  Spanish  Franciscans.     In  fact,  almost  immediately 

afterwards  the  friars  were  condemned  to  lose  their 
ears  and  noses,  and  then  to  he  crucified;  and,  as  a 
warning1  to  the  great  body  of  the  Christians,  twelve  of 
those  who  were  most  in  the  habit  of  frequenting-  their 
church  were  included  in  the  same  sentence,  as  were  also 
some  young-  children,  a  Jesuit  father,  and  two  Jesuit 
novices,  who  chanced  to  he  in  the  house  at  the  moment 
it  was  surrounded.  These  last  might  possibly  have 
been  released  upon  proper  representation  of  the  case 
to  the  emperor ;  but  it  was  considered  dangerous  to 
try  the  experiment,  lest  his  indignation  should  be 
roused  against  the  whole  body,  if  he  found  that  any 
among  them  had  been  in  communication  with  the 
friars ;  and  the  Provincial  was  reluctantly  obliged  to 
leave  them  to  their  fate.  The  prisoners  suffered  the 
amputation  of  a  portion  of  their  ears  in  the  high  town 
of  Miako,  the  governor,  by  a  rare  exercise  of  clemency, 
having  remitted  the  more  barbarous  mutilation  contem- 
plated by  the  sentence ;  and  some  of  these  bloody  tro- 
phies being  afterwards  carried  to  the  Father  Superior  of 
the  Jesuits,  he  burst  into  tears,  partly  of  compassion, 
but  most  of  joy,  while,  offering  them  up  to  God,  he 
uttered  these  touching  words  :  "  Behold,  0  Divine 
Saviour,  these  first-fruits  of  our  labours  in  Japan. 
Grant  that  this  blood,  poured  forth  upon  the  earth,  may 
make  it  fruitful  in  faithful  souls,  who  shall  glorify  Thy 
Name  in  this  unknown  and  distant  cmarter  of  the 
globe." 

While  this  scene  was  passing  in  the  college,  the 
martyrs  themselves  were  conducted  in  carts  about  the 
city,  their  sentence  being  carried  upon  long  poles  be- 
fore them.  Far,  however,  from  the  insults  and  deri- 
sions which  usually  accompanied  similar  processions, 
the  crowd  had  nothing  but  respectful  sympathy  to  offer 
to  the  present  victims;  many  were  even  moved  to  tears 
as  the  cart  containing  the  children  passed  along,  and  they 
were  seen  standing  together  with  their  hands  tied  behind 
them,  and  their  little  faces  bathed  in  blood,  while  with 


en.  vi.J  japan.  107 

their  innocent  voices  they  still  sang  hymns  in  honour 
or*  their  God. 

Father  Peter  Baptist,  the  Superior  of  the  Francis- 
cans, and  a  man  possessing  every  virtue  except  pru- 
dence, preached  continually  to  the  people  as  they  went 
along ;  so  also  did  Paul  Miki,  the  Jesuit,  who  even 
converted  two  of  his  guards  in  the  course  of  this  circuit. 
Nangasaki  was  the  town  destined  for  their  execution, 
and  hither  they  were  soon  afterwards  despatched ;  but 
so  badly  mounted  and  so  poorly  clad,  that  but  for  the 
voluntary  charity  both  of  heathens  and  Christians,  they 
must  have  died  on  the  road  from  the  inclemency  of 
the  weather. 

None  of  the  Jesuits  were  permitted  to  accompany 
them ;  even  the  Bishop  was  obliged  to  send  his  bless- 
ing by  proxy ;  but  one  of  the  fathers  managed  to  meet 
them  before  they  arrived  at  Nangasaki ;  and  a  halt, 
contrived  by  the  friendly  governor  -for  this  very  pur- 
pose, enabled  him  both  to  receive  their  general  confes- 
sions and  the  vows  of  the  Jesuit  novices,  who  were 
most  anxious  to  be  admitted  into  the  society  before 
their  execution.  Rodriguez  also,  the  emperor's  inter- 
preter, was  happy  enough  to  obtain  an  interview  with 
the  prisoners ;  and  Father  Peter  Baptist,  in  a  spirit  of 
humility  most  touching  and  edifying  at  a  moment  when 
all  around  were  honouring  him  as  a  future  martyr, 
asked  pardon  of  the  Jesuit,  on  his  knees,  for  the  injury 
which  he  now  felt  that  he  and  his  brethren  had  brought 
upon  the  mission.  Father  Rodriguez  was  not  to  be 
outdone  in  humility,  therefore  he  also  demanded  par- 
don of  the  Franciscans  in  the  same  lowly  posture,  on 
behalf  of  his  society,  if  haply  any  thing  had  been  either 
said  or  done  on  its  side  contrary  to  Christian  charity; 
and  the  two  fathers  then  embraced  each  other  with  the 
tenderest  expressions  of  affection  and  esteem.  The  con- 
demned Jesuits  likewise  thanked  the  Franciscans  so 
fervently  for  the  share  which  they  hnd  had  in  this 
happy  consummation  of  their  labours,  that  the  guards 
were  filled  with  wonder,  exclaiming  almost  in  the  very 


108  JAPAN, 

words  of  those  Roman  soldiers  who  led  Valerian  and 
his  brother  to  their  doom :  "  What  manner  of  men 
are  these,  who  go  to  destruction  as  others  to  a  banquet 
or  a  ball !  Whoever  saw  so  much  suffering*  and  so 
much  joy?  A  hymn  of  triumph  and  a  felon's  death." 
They  might  well  ask  the  question  ;  and  greatly  must 
their  astonishment  have  increased  when,  upon  drawing" 
near  to  Nangasaki,  the  crosses  destined  for  the  exe- 
cution became  visible  on  the  mountain-heights;  for  at 
the  sight  of  this  new  Calvary  the  martyrs  burst  into 
fresh  exclamations  of  joy  and  devotion,  and  little 
Lewis  more  especially;  seeing  three  crosses  smaller  than 
the  rest,  eagerly  inquired  which  was  to  be  his,  em- 
bracing it,  as  soon  as  he  reached  the  spot,  with  as  much 
eagerness  and  affection  as  even  the  apostle  St.  Andrew 
had  testified  for  his. 

The  boy  was  only  twelve  years  of  age,  and  might 
easily  have  escaped  when  first  taken  at  the  convent; 
but  he  preferred  dying  with  the  fathers  to  living  with- 
out them.  Nor  was  this  a  mere  momentary  impulse  of 
love  or  of  enthusiasm.  Every  one  of  these  poor  chil- 
dren remained  firm  from  first  to  last,  notwithstanding- 
the  severe  trial  to  which  their  constancy  was  put,  botn 
during  the  many  days  that  elapsed  after  the  cruel  mu- 
tilation practised  upon  them  at  Miako,  and  in  the 
weary  journey  and  protracted  preparations  for  their 
final  execution.  In  vain  did  the  parents  of  one  of 
them  beseech  him  to  have  pity  on  their  grey  hairs, 
and  to  purchase  safety  at  the  price  of  his  religion;  in 
vain  did  the  governors  themselves  alternately  offer  life 
to  Lewis  and  to  Anthony,  with  promises  even  of  fa- 
vour and  promotion,  if  they  would  but  abandon  their 
faith  :  entreaty  and  proposal  were  unhesitatingly  re- 
fused ;  and  baffled  and  disappointed,  the  tempter: 
at  length  compelled  to  leave  the  children  to  their  fate, 
witli  their  older  but  not  more  heroic  companions. 

The  Japanese  mode  of  crucifixion  is  not  that  which 
was  suffered  by  our  Lord,  and  which  we  naturally  as- 
sociate with  the  name.     The  victim  is  merely  fastened 


en.  vi.]  japax.  109 

to  his  cross  by  the  hands  and  arms,  and  by  an  iron 
ring-  passing*  round  the  neck  so  as  to  keep  the  head  in 
an  erect  position ;  and  a  sharp  lance  then  driven  into 
the  heart  extinguishes  life  in  a  moment.  Such  was 
the  death  which  the  martyrs  were  now  to  endure ;  and 
lying-  each  upon  his  own  cross,  they  waited  for  the 
moment  when  they  were  to  be  lifted  up  on  high. 
Troops  had  been  ranged  round  the  foot  of  the  hill  in 
order  to  prevent  any  but  the  nearest  relations  of  the 
martyrs  from  approaching*  the  spot ;  but  the  vast 
plains  extending*  from  that  point  to  the  city  were 
thronged  by  a  dense  mass  of  people,  come  to  witness  the 
execution.  At  first  a  solemn  silence  reig*ned  through- 
out  that  mighty  multitude;  every  voice  was  hushed, 
every  heart  and  eye  were  fixed  upon  the  fatal  spot;  but 
when,  at  a  given  signal,  the  crosses  were  raised,  and  the 
martyrs  were  seen  hanging*  each  from  his  own  cross, 
with  an  executioner  at  his  side,  ready  to  strike  the 
fatal  blow,  the  feelings  of  nature  could  no  longer  be 
repressed,  and  from  the  plains  below  there  rose  a  mourn- 
ful cry  that  reached  even  to  the  ears  of  the  dying*  saints. 
They  respond  ed  not  to  the  lamentation ;  on  the  con- 
trary, Father  Peter  Baptist  began  the  Bencdlctus,  and 
at  the  sound  of  his  voice  the  others  took  up  the  strain, 
and  continued  it  to  the  end  with  a  devotion  which  quite 
electrified  the  spectators.  The  children  then  asked  Fa- 
ther Peter  to  sing*  with  them  the  Laudate  pticri ;  but 
absorbed  in  profound  contemplation,  he  heard  them 
not;  and  they  sang  it  therefore  themselves,  never  ceas- 
ing* until  their  innocent  voices  were  hushed  in  death. 
They  were  all  struck  nearly  at  the  same  moment,  and 
all  met  their  fate  with  the  same  courage  and  constancy 
as  they  had  shown  from  the  beginning ;  but  Paul  Miki 
seems  more  especially  to  have  died  in  a  spirit  of  de- 
votion to  the  Passion  of  our  Saviour.  He  it  was  who 
had  petitioned  for  this  reason  that  they  might  be  ex- 
ecuted on  a  Friday;  and  having  obtained  this  request,  he 
had  also  the  consolation  of  dying  with  the  very  words 
of  Jesus  on  his  lips ;  exclaiming,  u  Into  Thy  hands  I 


110  JAPAN. 

commend  my  spirit"  almost  simultaneously  with  the 
blow  which  sent  him  to  his  God. 

No  sooner  was  it  known  that  the  martyrs  had  actu- 
ally expired,  than  all  the  scenes  of  the  old  Roman  mar- 
tyrdoms were  renewed  in  their  regard.  A  poor  wretch 
who,  through  fear  or  shame,  had  basely  denied  his  re- 
ligion, was  reconverted  on  the  spot;  and  taught  by  the 
same  unerring-  instinct  which  had  led  the  children  of 
the  infant  Church  to  seek  the  relics  of  the  honoured 
dead,  often  even  at  the  risk  of  their  own  lives,  the  Japanese 
converts  now  forced  the  barriers,  and  bursting  through 
every  obstacle,  tore  off  portions  of  the  martyrs'  robes, 
and  dipped  veils  and  handkerchiefs  in  their  gaping 
wounds,  until  the  governor  was  obliged  to  double  the 
guards,  in  order  to  remove  the  people  to  a  distance.* 

The  blow  which  this  martyrdom  inflicted  on  the 
Church  was  speedily  followed  by  a  fresh  importation  of 
Christian  warriors  into  the  Corea,  and  by  a  new  edict  for 
the  banishment  of  the  Jesuit  fathers.  Their  churches 
were  every  where  destroyed ;  such  colleges  as  they  had 
been  allowed  to  retain  in  the  dominions  of  the  Christian 
kings  were  broken  up,  and  the  students  scattered  to 
their  several  homes ;  and,  forced  at  length  to  yield  to 
the  storm,  the  provincial  had  actually  named  some  of 
the  least  useful  members  of  the  society  to  be  sent  back 
to  India,  in  hopes  of  being  thus  enabled  to  retain  the 
others  without  incurring'  the  suspicions  of  Teigo-Sama, 
when  that  monarch  died.  The  last  part  of  his  reign 
had  been  far  less  fortunate  than  its  commencement. 
Corea,  won  by  the  blood  and  treasures  of  his  Christian 
subjects,  had  been  lost  again  by  some  unhappy  failure 
in  his  negotiations  for  peace — a  failure  chiefly  to  be 
attributed  to  the  delay  which  his  absurd  vanity  had 
caused  him  to  make  for  the  more  magnificent  reception 
of  the  Chinese  ambassadors  who  had  been  deputed  to 
treat  at  his  court  on  the  subject.  Almost  at  the  same 
time,  Japan  was  devastated  by  frightful  storms  and  by 

*  These  first  martyrs  of  Japan  were  canonised  by  Pope  Urban 
VIII.,  and  their  festival  is  celebrated  on  the  5th  of  February. 


CH.  VI.]  JAPAN.  Ill 

a  succession  of  earthquakes,  one  of  which  destroyed  the 
magnificent  city  and  palace  he  had  built  for  himself; 

so  that  he,  the  mighty  and  unapproachable  monarch, 
the  would-be  conqueror  of  the  world,  and  candidate  for 
the  honours  of  divinity,  was  forced  to  fly  in  the  midst 
of  the  night  from  the  ruins  of  his  own  abode;  and  with 
no  other  apparel  than  such  as  he  chanced  to  be  wearing 
at  the  moment,  to  seek  for  safety  in  the  kitchen  of  a 
slave.  But  no  warning-  reached  his  conscience,  no 
misfortune  lowered  his  pride.  As  he  had  lived,  so  did 
he  die.  Father  Rodriguez,  his  interpreter,  was  with  him 
to  the  last,  but  he  tried  in  vain  to  rouse  him  to  the  con- 
templation of  eternity  ;  even  in  the  ag-onies  of  death  the 
ruling-  passion  of  his  life  was  strong  within  him,  and  his 
soul  was  engrossed  by  his  anxiety  to  secure  the  succession 
to  his  son,  a  boy  of  about  eleven  years  of  ag-e,  and  to  pro- 
cure for  himself  the  honour  of  being-  placed  among-  the 
idols  of  Japan.  The  latter  wish  was  far  more  easy  of  ac- 
complishment than  the  first.  As  soon  as  he  had  expired, 
a  temple  was  erected ;  a  statue  which  during*  his  lifetime 
he  had  had  the  vanity  to  have  modelled  after  his  own 
likeness  was  set  up  in  it  for  adoration,  and  he  was  placed 
among*  the  Chadotschi  under  the  title  of  the  new  god 
of  war.  Nothing  could  have  been  more  favourable  to 
the  Christian  religion,  or  more  fatal  to  the  cause  of 
idolatry,  than  this  gross  act  of  adulation  to  the  departed 
monarch.  The  tradition  of  his  life  was  yet  fresh  in 
the  memories  of  men.  Every  one  knew  him  to  have 
been  ambitious,  debauched,  cruel,  proud,  and  sordid; 
and  naturally  concluding  that  if  he  were  indeed  a 
£tting  object  of  adoration,  the  idols  among  whom 
he  had  been  placed  must  probably  have  been  of  the 
same  character  as  himself,  thousands  embraced  Chris- 
tianity who  had  hitherto  been  deaf  to  every  argument 
of  the  fathers. 

The  death  of  Teigo-Sama  put  an  end  to  the  Corean 
war ;  and  the  Christian  princes  being  thus  restored  to 
their  own  dominions,  religion  began  to  breathe  freely 
again.     Churches  were  rebuilt,  colleges  re-established, 


112  JAPAN. 

and  tliing-s  were  soon  nearly  upon  the  same  footing 
as  they  had  been  in  the  days  of  Nobunanga ;  but,  un- 
fortunately, the  despotic  and  fluctuating'  nature  of  the 
government  of  Japan  rendered  every  interval  of  peace 
to  the  Church  fleeting  and  uncertain  as  the  g'lories  of  an 
April  day. 

The  young*  prince  being*  still  in  his  minority  when 
liis  father  died,  Teigo-Sama  had  appointed  a  regency, 
consisting  of  a  chief  governor,  with  forty-nine  of  the 
inferior  kings  to  act  as  his  assistants.  This  singular 
form  of  government  was  apparently  chosen  in  order 
that  the  number  and  mutual  jealousies  of  the  persons 
thus  strangely  associated  might  act  as  a  check  both 
upon  the  ambition  of  the  reg*ent  and  upon  that  of 
one  another;  and  if  the  experiment  was  not  altogether 
successful,  it  showed  at  least  the  sagacity  which  had 
foreseen  and  endeavoured  to  remedy  the  danger. 

The  regent  commenced  his  government  under  the  title 
of  the  Deifn-Sama;  but  it  soon  became  so  manifest  that 
he  intended  to  usurp  the  crown  altogether,  that  Angus- 
tine,  Gibonoscia,  and  others  of  the  governors,  who, 
having  taken  an  oath  of  fidelity  to  the  young  prince, 
were  resolved  to  keep  it,  leagued  together  against 
him.  The  good  fortune  of  the  admiral,  however,  had 
at  length  departed;  in  the  first  pitched  battle  which 
took  place,  the  combined  forces  of  the  governors  were 
utterly  defeated,  and  Augustine  taken  prisoner.  For  a 
moment  he  had  a  violent  temptation  to  disappoint  his  cap- 
tors by  suicide,  an  act  so  common  and  so  admired  among 
his  fellow-countrymen;  but  the  law  of  God  forbade 
it,  and  the  Christian  chief  put  back  the  thought,  and 
with  a  nobler  courage  submitted  to  his  fate.  He  was 
led  at  once  into  the  presence  of  the  Prince  of  Budsen, 
one  of  the  generals  in  the  victorious  army,  who  had 
formerly  been  his  bosom  friend.  The  prince  was  so 
affected  at  the  sight  of  the  fallen  chief,  that  he  burst 
into  tears,  and  was  unable  to  speak.  Augustine  saw 
that  he  was  weeping',  and  raising  his  head  with  great 
dignity,  addressed  him  thus  :  "  Sir,  you  know  what  I 


CH.  VI.]  JAPAN.  113 

once  was,  and  you  see  what  I  have  now  become.  I 
have  therefore  nothing*  new  to  say,  and  but  one  request 
to  make  at  your  hands." 

The  prince  was  silent ;  he  thought  Augustine  was 
going'  to  ask  his  life,  which  he  knew  to  be  forfeited  to 
Deifu-Sama's  vengeance;  and  therefore  he  made  no 
reply.  The  prisoner  guessed  the  cause  of  his  em- 
barrassment, and  hastily  went  on  to  say,  "  It  is  not  my 
life  that  I  ask ;  had  not  the  law  of  God  forbidden  it,  I 
had  never  been  brought  alive  into  your  hands  to-day. 
All  I  crave  is  a  Jesuit  father  who  may  prepare  me  to 
die  as  a  Christian  should.1' 

Natural  as  this  request  might  seem,  it  was  refused 
by  Deifii-Sama,  to  whom  it  was  referred;  and  thus  left 
destitute  of  all  human  succour,  Augustine  threw  him- 
self upon  the  mercies  of  God  with  such  a  generous  con- 
fidence, that,  far  from  quailing  before  the  prospect  of 
an  ignominious  death,  he  rather  exulted  in  the  thought 
of  being  thus  brought  into  closer  imitation  of  his  Lord 
and  Saviour. 

When  therefore  he  and  his  former  friend  Gibonoscia, 
with  another  of  their  companions  in  misfortune,  were 
led  to  execution,  mounted  on  pitiful  horses,  and  exposed 
to  all  the  jeers  and  insults  of  the  mob,  it  needed  not 
to  ask  who  was  the  Christian,  and  who  the  heathen? 
The  faith  in  which  they  severally  had  trusted  was 
written  upon  their  very  faces.  Filled  with  the  human 
pride  inculcated  and  cherished  by  their  idolatry,  the 
heathens  were  so  overwhelmed  by  the  shame  of  their 
situation — a  shame  which  for  them  had  no  hidden  value 
to  compensate  for  its  exterior  bitterness — that  they 
covered  their  faces  with  their  hands,  and  wept  like  men 
in  the  depths  of  despair;  while  Augustine,  on  the  con- 
trary, as  the  disciple  of  a  religion  which  places  humilia- 
tion above  honour,  and  gives  to  virtue  in  disgrace  a 
precious  consciousness  of  its  resemblance  to  the  Re- 
deemer of  mankind,  not  only  met  every  insult  with 
the  calmness  of  one  who  felt  that  nothing  but  sin  could 
really  lower  him  in  the  eyes  of  God  or  the  estimation 
I 


114  JAPAN. 

of  good  men,  but  with  an  air  and  manner  which  showed 
alike  his  vivid  hope  of  future  bliss  and  the  greatness  of 
his  present  consolation. 

To  a  faithful  Christian,  despatched  by  the  Jesuit 
fathers  to  assist  him  in  the  hour  of  death,  he  declared 
that  he  died  not  only  content,  but  full  of  joy ;  for  having 
confessed  and  communicated  before  going  into  battle, 
he  had  since  done  all  that  had  been  suggested  to  him 
as  a  fitting  preparation  for  this  solemn  occasion.  Some 
of  the  bonzes  then  wished  to  perform  in  his  favour 
certain  superstitious  ceremonies  usual  on  such  occasions; 
but  rejecting  their  twice- oifered  services  with  scorn,  he 
took  a  picture  of  our  Lady  into  his  hands,  and  set  it 
three  times  upon  his  head — -a  mark  of  the  greatest 
honour  and  esteem  that  can  be  paid  to  any  thing  or 
person  in  Japan.  In  fear,  in  trembling,  and  in  tears, 
his  companions  died;  but  when  his  turn  was  come,  with- 
out any  change  of  countenance  or  of  colour,  he  fell  upon 
his  knees,  and  earnestly  recommended  his  soul  to  God  ; 
his  head  was  severed  from  his  body  while  the  words 
"  Jesus  !  Mary  !"  the  invariable  death-cry  of  the  Japa- 
nese Christians,  were  yet  trembling  on  his  lips.  Thus 
perished  this  great  man, — a  hero  in  the  estimation  of 
the  world,  a  saint  in  the  eyes  of  the  Church.  From 
the  first  hour  of  his  conversion  to  the  day  of  his  death, 
he  had  been  the  unwearied  promoter  of  the  Christian 
religion,  and  its  most  zealous  and  fearless  defender 
against  the  machinations  of  its  enemies.  His  military 
talents,  his  hig'h  renown,  his  wealth  and  power, — all  had 
been  devoted  to  this  one  great  object;  and  he  died  at 
last  because,  scrupulous  of  the  oath  which  he  had  taken 
to  one  prince,  he  opposed  every  attempt  at  usurpation 
on  the  part  of  another.  His  wife  and  daughter  found 
a  temporary  asylum  with  the  Jesuits  at  Nangasaki, 
who  offered  them  hospitality  at  the  peril  of  their  own 
lives;  but  instead  of  resenting  this  act  of  gratitude  to 
their  departed  benefactor,  Deifu-Sama  seemed  almost  to 
give  it  the  sanction  of  his  own  approbation  by  after- 
wards granting  a  free  pardon  to  these  ladies,  who  had 


CH.  VI.J  JAPAN.  115 

been  involved  by  the  laws  of  the  country  in  one  com- 
mon ruin  with  their  father  and  husband. 

The  Queen  of  Tango  was  the  only  other  Christian  of 
note  who  perished  in  this  unhappy  war.  Her  husband 
had  sided  with  Deifu-Sama  ;  but  when  he  went  to  join 
his  army,  he  gave  the  cruel  order  that  his  wife  should 
be  put  to  death  if  the  enemy's  forces  approached  near 
enough  the  city  to  make  it  likely  that  she  should  fall  into 
their  hands'.  Grace  seems  to  have  been  nearly  idolised 
by  all  who  were  about  her ;  when  therefore  the  near 
neighbourhood  of  the  enemy  rendered  it  imperative  to 
put  the  king's  sentence  into  execution,  those  appointed 
to  the  fatal  deed  fell  upon  their  knees,  and  with  many 
tears  declared  their  mission,  as  well  as  their  intention 
of  destroying*  themselves  as  soon  as  it  should  be  accom- 
plished. Far  from  being  either  astonished  or  dismayed, 
the  queen  adored  profoundly  that  Divine  Providence 
which  mercifully  called  her  from  a  world  that  had  no 
charms  for  her ;  and  then,  seeking  to  console  her  hea- 
then servants,  who  were  howling  and  tearing  their  hair 
with  every  sign  of  savage  despair,  she  softly  said:  aO 
my  children,  be  not  afflicted  !  Death  to  a  Christian 
soul  is  but  the  passing  from  a  temporal  life  to  one  that 
is  eternal.  Do  therefore  your  master's  orders  without 
fear  or  sorrow ;  but  remember  that  God  forbids  you  to 
lay  violent  hands  on  yourselves,  and  I,  your  queen,  for- 
bid it  likewise.  Rather  embrace  the  Christian  religion ; 
and  then  indeed  I  shall  die  content." 

Unhappily,  this  advice  was  too  contrary  to  their  no- 
tions of  honour  and  fidelity  to  be  at  all  acceptable  to 
those  who  heard  her;  and  in  the  name  of  all  the  others, 
the  captain  of  the  band  declared  that  nothing-  should 
induce  them  to  accept  a  religion  which  forbade  the  tri- 
bute of  affection  they  had  determined  on  paying  to  her 
memory. 

Seeing  all  her  arguments  were  in  vain,  the  queen 
retired  to  her  oratory  to  pray,  while  they  employed 
themselves  in  filling  the  outer  chambers  of  the  palace 
with  gunpowder.      This  done,  and  the  prayers  of  the 


116  JAPAN. 

queen  concluded,  she  took  a  tender  and  affectionate 
leave  of  all  her  women ;  and  loosing-  herself  the  silken 
rohes  from  off  her  neck,  she  submitted  to  her  fate  with 
the  same  calmness  and  serenity  which  she  had  shown 
throughout  every  portion  of  this  trying-  scene.  Her 
reluctant  executioners  reverentially  cast  a  silken  mantle 
over  the  body,  and  then  setting*  fire  to  the  train  of 
powder  which  had  been  laid,  they  and  every  other  in- 
mate of  the  palace  perished  in  the  terrible  explosion 
which  ensued. 

The  king-  her  husband  lamented  her  death  with  a 
g-rief  as  extravagant  as  thoug-h  he  had  not  been  himself 
the  author  of  her  doom ;  and  hearing-  that  the  Jesuits  had 
collected  some  half-burnt  bones,  supposed  to  be  those 
of  the  murdered  queen,  with  the  intention  of  giving 
them  decent  interment,  he  ordered  them  to  perforin  a 
funeral  Mass  for  her  at  Osaka.  The  church  was  hung 
with  black,  and  a  chapelle  ardente  being  placed  before 
the  altar,  the  Mass  was  sung  with  so  much  majesty  and 
devotion,  that  the  king,  who  with  all  his  nobles  was 
present,  declared  that  the  ceremonies  of  his  native 
bonzes  were  far  inferior  to  those  in  use  among  the 
Christians.  He  was  also  much  struck  by  the  disinte- 
restedness of  the  Jesuit  fathers,  to  whom  he  presented 
a  large  sum  of  money,  but  which  they  immediately 
afterwards  distributed  among  the  poor :  and  from  that 
time  he  gave  free  permission  to  all  his  subjects  to  pro- 
fess the  Christian  religion ;  though  he  never  attempted 
to  embrace  it  himself, — being  one  of  those  instances  so 
often  to  be  met  with  in  the  history  of  Japan,  and,  alas, 
not  less  frequently  in  that  of  the  world  at  large,  of  men 
who  see  the  truth,  admire  and  confess  it,  and  yet  live 
and  die  without  making  it  tbci>-  own. 


CH.  VII.]  JAPAN.  117 


CHAPTER  VII. 

Persecution  of  the  Church  in  the  kingdom  of  Figo.  Charity  of  the 
Bishop  and  Jesuit  Fathei-s.  Martyrdoms  of  Japanese  nobles, 
vrith  their  wives  and  families.  Persecution  in  Firando  and 
Arima.     Heroic  martyrdoms  of  children  and  others. 

The  death  of  Augustine  and  his  compeers  effectually 
repressed  any  further  attempt  against  the  power  of 
Deifu-Sama ;  and  thus  left  to  pursue  his  ambitious 
designs  unchecked,  he  no  longer  hesitated  to  take  the 
title  of  the  Kumbo-Sama,  which  had  never  been  in  use 
since  the  days  of  Nobunanga.  Though  the  com- 
mencement of  his  reign  was  not  marked  by  persecution, 
yet  it  is  evident  that  the  speech  of  the  Spanish  captain, 
which  had  poisoned  the  mind  of  his  predecessor  ag-ainst 
the  Christians,  still  rankled  darkly  and  silently  in  his 
own;  for  however  kindly  he  might  express  himself 
towards  individual  professors  of  that  religion,  he  never 
could  be  persuaded  either  to  repeal  the  persecuting  laws 
of  Teigo-Sama,  or  to  interfere  with  such  of  the  inferior 
monarchs  as  chose  to  put  them  into  execution.  In  this 
way  hundreds  of  the  best  and  noblest  of  Japan  perished 
under  the  jurisdiction  of  men  scarcely  their  superiors, 
and  often  only  their  equals,  through  some  caprice  of 
fortune,  or  of  imperial  favour,  which  had  put  them  in 
possession  of  a  conquered  kingdom. 

The  king  of  Figo  led  the  way  in  the  ranks  of  the 
persecutors  by  a  sentence  of  outlawry  against  his  Chris- 
tian subjects,  who,  in  consequence  of  this  sentence, 
were  driven  from  their  houses  and  deprived  of  all  office, 
revenue,  and  rank ;  while  the  food  and  shelter  which 
the  people  of  their  own  nation  were  forbidden  to  give 
them,  they  were,  by  a  most  fiendlike  ingenuity,  pro- 
hibited under  pain  of  death  from  seeking  elsewhere. 
It  is  plain  that  death  itself  would  have  been  almost  a 


118  JAPAN. 

mercy,  compared  to  the  miseries  entailed  by  such  a  pe- 
nalty as  this;  nevertheless  cold,  hunger,  fatigue,  and 
death  itself  with  its  attendant  horrors,  all  were  endured 
without  a  murmur  for  the  sake  of  Christ;  and  at  last, 
at  the  end  of  six  months,  the  sufferers  were  permitted 
to  go  and  seek  the  hospitality  of  their  brethren  at  Nan- 
gasaki,  where  they  were  received  with  the  utmost  ten- 
derness and  affection,  the  Bishop  and  his  clergy  (the 
Jesuits)  devoting  to  their  support  all  the  alms  that 
native  Christians  or  foreign  princes  had  offered  for 
their  own. 

Scarcely  had  the  exiles  reached  this  hospitable  asy- 
lum ere  another  edict  was  published  in  Figo,  command- 
ing all  the  remaining  Christians  to  repair  to  the  house 
of  a  bonze  appointed  for  the  purpose,  and  in  his  presence 
to  perform  a  certain  ceremony,  which  was  to  be  con- 
sidered as  a  declaration  of  their  belief  in  his  teaching. 
Death  was  to  be  the  penalty  of  a  refusal ;  and  two  noble- 
men, named  John  and  Simon,  were  chosen  as  examples 
of  severity  to  the  rest.  Both  were  friends  of  the  governor, 
to  whom  the  order  had  been  intrusted,  and  he  did  what 
he  could  to  save  them.  "  If  they  would  but  feign  com- 
pliance with  the  king's  decree,"  or  "  have  the  ceremony 
privately  performed  at  their  own  houses,"  or  "  bribe  the 
bonze  to  allow  it  to  be  supposed  he  had  received  their 
recantation," — each  of  these  alternatives  was  as  eagerly 
urged  as  it  was  indignantly  rejected ;  and  when  a  band 
of  ruffians  dragged  John  to  the  bonze's  house,  and  set 
the  superstitious  book  which  was  to  be  the  token  of  his 
apostasy  by  main  force  upon  his  head,  he  protested  so 
loudly  and  vehemently  against  the  violence  done  to  his 
will,  that  nothing  remained  but  to  sentence  him  to 
death.  The  execution  took  place  in  the  presence  of 
the  governor ;  and  from  the  chamber,  still  reeking 
with  the  blood  of  one  friend,  he  went  to  the  house  of 
the  other  on  a  similar  mission,  and  with  equal  reluct- 
ance. 

Simon  was  quietly  conversing  with  his  mother  when 
the  governor  entered;  and  the  latter  could  not  refrain 


CH.  VII.]  JAPAN.  119 

from  weeping"  as  he  besought  that  lady  to  have  pity 
upon  them  both,  and  by  advising-  compliance  with  the 
king's  commands,  to  spare  herself  the  angiiish  of  losing 
a  son,  and  himself  that  of  imbruing-  his  hands  in  the 
blood  of  a  friend.  Touching-  as  was  the  appeal,  it 
was  made  in  vain;  for  in  her  answer  the  Christian 
mother  proved  true  to  her  faith  j  so  that  the  governor 
left  the  house,  indignantly  declaring  that  by  her  obsti- 
nacy she  was  guilty  of  the  death  of  her  son.  Another 
nobleman  entered  soon  afterwards,  charged  with  the 
personal  execution  of  the  sentence.  This  was  no  unusual 
method  of  proceeding-,  since  every  Japanese  nobleman, 
strange  to  say,  may  at  any  moment  be  called  upon  to 
officiate  in  such  cases,  it  being*  a  favour  often  granted 
to  persons  of  rank  to  die  by  the  hand  of  a  friend  or  a 
servant,  rather  than  by  that  of  the  ordinary  headsman. 
Jotivava  was  a  friend  of  Simon's,  and  he  proceeded 
with  what  heart  he  might  to  his  sad  and  revolting  duty. 
Knowing  his  errand  well,  Simon  received  him  with  an 
affectionate  smile,  and  then  prostrated  himself  in  prayer 
before  an  image  of  our  Saviour  crowned  with  thorns, 
while  his  wife  and  mother  called  for  warm  water  that 
he  might  wash, — a  ceremony  the  Japanese  always  ob- 
serve upon  joyful  occasions.  Tears  of  natural  regret 
would  now  indeed  even  in  the  midst  of  this  generous 
exultation  ;  and  Agnes,  falling  upon  her  knees,  besought 
her  husband  to  cut  off  her  hair,  as  a  sign  that  she  never 
would  marry  again.  After  a  little  hesitation,  he  com- 
plied with  this  request;  prophesying,  however,  that  she 
and  his  mother  would  soon  follow  him  to  heaven ;  and 
then,  accompanied  by  the  three  Giffiaques,  or  officers  of 
the  Confraternity  of  Mercy,  whom  he  had  summoned  to 
be  present  at  the  execution,  they  all  entered  the  hall 
where  it  was  intended  to  take  place.  Michael,  one  of 
the  Giffiaques,  carried  a  crucifix  •  the  other  two  bore 
lighted  torches  ;  and  Simon  walked  between  his  wife 
and  mother,  while  his  disconsolate  servants  brought  up 
the  rear.  An  unhappy  renegade  met  them  at  the  en- 
trance to  take  leave  of  Simon ;  but  struck  by  the  con- 


120 


JAPAN. 


trast  between  his  own  conduct  and  that  of  the  martyr, 
he  burst  into  tears,  and  was  unable  to  speak.  Most 
eloquently  did  Simon  urge  him  to  repentance,  uncon- 
sciously using-  almost  the  very  words  of  his  Divine 
Master,  as  he  bade  him  weep,  "  not  for  his  own  ap- 
proaching fate,  but  for  the  fell  apostasy  by  which  he,  a 
renegade,  had  rendered  himself  guilty  of  hell-fire ;" 
then  distributing  his  rosaries  and  other  objects  of  de- 
votion as  memorials  among  his  friends,  he  refused  to 
give  to  the  apostate  a  single  bead,  urgently  as  he  be- 
sought it  of  him,  unless  he  would  make  a  solemn  pro- 
mise of  repentance  and  amendment. 

The  condition  was  at  length  accepted,  and  Simon 
joyfully  returned  to  his  prayers.  He  and  his  friends  re- 
cited the  litany ;  and  then,  bowing  before  a  picture  of 
our  Saviour  until  his  forehead  touched  the  ground,  the 
nobleman  who  acted  as  executioner  took  off  his  head  at 
a  single  blow.  It  fell  at  the  feet  of  one  of  the  Gimaques ; 
but  his  mother,  with  the  courage  of  a  Machabee,  took 
it  in  her  hands,  exclaiming,  "  0  dear  head,  resplendent 
now  with  celestial  glory !  0  happy  Simon,  who  hast 
had  the  honour  of  dying  for  Him  who  died  for  thee ! 
My  God !  Thou  didst  give  me  Thy  Son ;  take  now  this 
son  of  mine,  sacrificed  for  the  love  of  Thee !"  After 
the  mother  came  poor  Agnes,  weeping  some  softer 
tears  over  the  relics  of  her  husband ;  and  then,  fore- 
seeing that  her  own  death  would  speedily  follow 
upon  his,  she  and  her  mother  betook  themselves  to 
prayer,  the  three  Gimaques  remaining  in  attendance 
in  order  to  be  able  to  assist  at  their  execution ;  and,  in 
fact,  twenty-four  hours  had  not  elapsed  before  it  was 
told  them  they  were  to  die;  the  officer  who  came  to 
acquaint  them  with  their  sentence  bringing  with  him 
Magdalen,  the  wife  of  John,  and  Lewis,  a  little  child 
whom  the  latter  had  adopted  as  his  own,  both  of  whom 
were  condemned  to  a  similar  fate. 

With  eager  joy  the  prisoners  embraced  each  other, 
praising,  blessing,  and  thanking  God,  not  only  that 
they  were  to  suffer  for  Jesus,  but  also  that  they  were 


CH.  VII.]  JAPAN.  121 

to  suffer  on  a  cross  like  Jesus ;  and  then,  robed  in  their 
best  attire,  they  set  off  for  the  place  of  execution  in 
palanquins  which  the  guards  had  provided  for  the  pur- 
pose.    The  Giffiaques  walked  at  their  side ;  but  small 
need  had  they  to  offer  motives  for  constancy  to  these 
heroic  souls,  burning-  with  the  desire  of  martyrdom,  and 
eager  to  enter  the  path  by  which  their  nearest  and 
dearest  had  already  ascended  to   heaven.     Jane,  the 
mother  of  Simon,  besought  the  executioner  to  bind  her 
limbs  as  tightly  as  possible,  that  she  might  thus  share 
the  anguish  which  the  nails  inflicted  upon  those  of 
Jesus ;  and  she  preached  from  her  cross  with  so  much 
force  and  eloquence,  that  the  presiding  officer,  fearing 
the  effects  of  her  words  upon  the  people,  had  her  stabbed 
without  waiting  for  the  rest  of  the  victims.     Lewis  and 
Magdalen  were  tied  up  next.     They  bound  the  child  so 
violently  that  he  could  not  refrain  from  shrieking ;  but 
when  they  asked  him  if  lie  was  afraid  to  die,  he  said  he 
was  not ;  and  so  they  took  and  set  him  up  directly  op- 
posite his  mother.     For  a  brief  interval  the  martyr  and 
her  adopted  child  gazed  silently  on  each  other ;  then, 
summoning  all  her  strength,  she  said,  "  Son,  we  are 
going  to  heaven  :  take  courage,  and  cry,  '  Jesus,  Mary  !' 
with  your  latest  breath."     And  again  the  child  replied, 
as  he  had  done  before   when,  on  leaving  their  own 
home,  she  had  made  him  a  similar  exhortation,  "  Mother, 
you  shall  be  obeyed !"     The  executioner  struck  at  him 
first,  but  missed  his  aim ;  and  more  than  ever  fearing 
for  his  constancy,  Magdalen  exhorted  him  from  her 
cross,  while  Michael,  standing  at  its  foot,  spoke  words 
of  comfort  to  him.     But  the  child  needed  not  their 
urging;  he  did  not  shriek  again,  nor  did  he  shrink, 
but  waited  patiently  until  a  second  blow  had  pierced 
him  through  and  through ;  and  the  lance,  yet  reeking* 
with  his  blood,  was  directly  afterwards  plunged  into  the 
heart  of  his  mother,  whose  sharpest   pang  had  pro- 
bably already  passed  on  the  instant  when  the  son  of 
her  love  expired  before  her.     And  now  the  fair  and 
youthful  Agnes  alone  remained,  kneeling,  as  when  she 


122  JAPAN. 

first  had  reached  the  place  of  execution;  for  no  one  had 
yet  had  the  courage  to  approach  her.  Like  the  heads- 
man of  her  namesake,  the  loveliest  child  of  Christian 
story,  her  very  executioners  could  only  weep  that  they 
were  bid  to  mar  the  heauty  of  any  thing  so  fair ;  their 
hands  were  powerless  to  do  their  office ;  and  finding-  at 
last  that  no  one  sought  to  hind  her,  she  went  herself 
and  laid  her  gently  and  modestly  down  upon  her  cross. 
There  she  lay,  waiting  .for  her  hour,  calm  and  serene 
as  if  pillowed  on  an  angel's  bosom,  until  at  length 
some  of  the  spectators,  induced  partly  by  a  bribe 
offered  by  the  executioner,  but  chiefly  by  a  bigoted 
hatred  of  her  religion,  bound  her,  and  lifted  up  her 
cross,  and  then  struck  her  blow  after  blow,  until  be- 
neath their  rude  and  unaccustomed  hands  she  painfully 
expired.  For  a  year  and  a  day  the  bodies  were  left  to 
hang  upon  their  crosses,  as  a  terror  to  all  others  of  the 
same  religion ;  but  Christians  were  not  wanting  to  watch 
the  blackening  corpses,  and,  with  a  love  like  that  of 
Respha,  the  mother  of  the  sons  of  Saul,  to  drive  from 
thence  the  fowls  of  the  air  by  day,  and  the  beasts  of  the 
field  by  night ;  and  finally,  when  the  period  of  prohi- 
bition was  expired,  reverently  to  gather  the  hallowed 
bones  to  their  last  resting-place  in  the  church  of  Nan- 
gasaki. 

The  Giffiaques  were  the  next  who  felt  the  tyrant's 
rage.  The  governor  himself  urged  on  their  punish- 
ment, for  the  loss  of  his  friends  had  made  him  furious ; 
and,  attributing  it  entirely,  as  indeed  it  was  entirely  to 
be  attributed,  to  the  fact  of  their  religion,  he  resolved  to 
wreak  his  vengeance  upon  all  others  who  professed  it. 
One  difficulty  he  had,  however,  in  the  full  accomplish- 
ment of  his  desire,  namely,  that  no  punishment  which 
he  could  devise  for  his  victims  was  too  dreadful  to  be 
accepted  by  them  with  alacrity  and  joy.  "  What  shall 
I  do  with  these  men?"  lie  cried,  in  a  kind  of  savage 
perplexity  upon  being  told  that  the  Giffiaques  had  ra- 
ther courted  than  evaded  their  imprisonment :  "  Death 
they  rejoice  in,  as  in  the  acquisition  of  an  empire,  and 


CH.  VII.l  JAPAN.  123 

they  go  to  exile  as  a  slave  to  freedom.  The  cross  is  a 
royal  throne,  which  they  mount  with  pleasure  and  oc- 
cupy with  pride.  I  will  therefore  contrive  for  them  a 
fate  which  shall  make  death,  under  any  form  whatever, 
a  boon  to  be  desired,  but  not  to  be  attained."  Within 
the  city -walls  there  was  a  prison  which  the  king'  Lad 
constructed  for  the  reception  of  his  debtors.  Open  on 
every  side,  its  inmates  were  exposed  both  to  the  curious 
gaze  of  the  passing'  crowds  and  to  the  alternate  suf- 
fering- of  heat  and  cold,  as  summer  or  winter  revolved 
over  their  heads.  There,  huddled  tog-ether  in  this  en- 
closure, the  prisoners  lay,  not  upon  mats,  nor  yet  upon 
the  damp  cold  earth,  which  in  comparison  would  have 
been  a  mercy,  but  upon  heaps  of  horrid  filth,  the  accu- 
mulation of  many  years ;  for  by  a  hideous  cruelty  of 
invention,  the  monster  would  never  permit  the  cleans- 
ing- out  of  these  loathsome  places,  hoping-  by  the  hor- 
rible condition  of  their  dung-eon  to  extort  a  speedier 
payment  from  his  victims.  Into  this  den  of  suffering 
the  governor  cast  the  three  Christians  whom  he  had 
selected  for  his  prey,  never  doubting-  that  they  would 
be  soon  subdued  by  the  anguish  of  a  life  more  terrible 
than  the  most  lingering-  and  painful  death ;  and  so  for 
years  the  GinSaOjUes  lingered  on,  breathing  this  infected 
air — pillowed,  sleeping  and  waking,  on  the  loathsome 
dung  which  matted  all  the  pavement,  feeding  upon 
such  dry  crusts  and  filthy  water  as  their  jailors  chose 
to  give  them  ;  until  at  length  one  among  them  died, 
and  then  the  tyrant,  weary  of  such  willing  victims, 
commanded  the  other  two  to  be  cut  in  pieces. 

According  to  the  usual  custom  of  Japan,  their  chil- 
dren were  condemned  to  suffer  with  them  •  and  how- 
ever hateful  such  a  practice  must  appear  to  the  natural 
heart  of  man,  yet  was  it  ever  to  the  martyrs  a  most  wel- 
come boon  5  for  theirs  was  a  Christian  as  well  as  a  pa- 
rental love,  teaching  them  to  set  the  spiritual  above 
the  temporal  welfare  of  their  children,  and  therefore 
rather  to  rejoice  in,  than  simply  to  meet  with  calm  sub- 
mission, that  double  condemnation  which,  by  uniting  the 


124  JAPAN. 

fate  of  their  little  ones  with  their  own,  snatched  them 
from  any  future  chance  of  perversion,  and  put  them  at 
once  in  possession  of  their  heavenly  kingdom. 

One  of  these  little  victims  was  sleeping-  when  they 
came  to  fetch  him:  he  was  only  six  years  old,  and 
so  tiny,  that  he  had  to  run  as  fast  as  he  could  in  order  to 
keep  up  with  the  soldier  who  conducted  him  to  execu- 
tion ;  yet,  so  far  from  being*  frightened  at  his  fate,  he 
even  gazed  without  dismay  on  the  disfigured  corpses 
of  his  father,  uncle,  and  cousin,  who  had  all  suffered 
ere  he  reached  the  spot ;  and  then,  kneeling-  down  and 
joining-  his  hands  tog-ether,  looked  up  smiling-  in  the 
face  of  him  who  was  to  lay  him  at  their  side.  That 
look  disarmed  his  executioner.  The  man  suddenly 
sheathed  his  sword,  declaring  that  he  had  not  the 
heart  to  perform  his  office  ;  and  when  two  others 
sought  to  do  it  for  him,  they  also  burst  into  tears  as 
that  innocent  smiling-  face  met  their  downward  gaze ; 
nor  was  the  deed  accomplished  until  a  common  slave, 
compelled  by  force  to  the  odious  duty,  literally  hacked 
and  hewed  the  poor  infant  to  pieces. 

While  these  scenes,  and  scenes  like  these,  were  con- 
stantly recurring-  at  Fig*o,  the  kingdom  of  Firando, 
where  persecution  had  first  commenced,  and  where  it 
never  could  be  said  to  have  entirely  ceased,  was  like- 
wise giving  its  quota  of  martyr-triumphs  to  the  Church; 
Damian,  the  blind  man  of  Amang-ucchi,  whom  we  have 
honourably  mentioned  in  a  former  chapter,  being  al- 
most the  first  to  lay  down  his  life  for  the  faith.  From 
the  time  when  the  Jesuit  fathers  were  forcibly  driven 
out  of  that  city,  the  entire  management  of  the  infant 
mission  had  devolved  upon  this  poor  old  man,  whose 
life  was  henceforth  passed  in  preaching-,  catechising 
and  baptising-,  visiting  the  sick,  and  burying  the  dead, 
and  doing-  as  much  of  the  work  of  a  zealous  missionary 
as  could  be  accomplished  by  any  one  lacking-  holy  or- 
ders. This  was  sufficient  for  the  tyrant,  and  Damian 
received  his  choice  between  Christianity  and  death  on 
the  one  hand,  and  on  the  other,  apostasy  and  life,  with 


CH.  VII.J  JAPAN.  125 

all  that  could  make  life  most  desirable  to  the  heart  of 
man. 

The  brave  old  Christian  was  not  long-  in  making' 
his  choice ;  and  he  died  for  a  testimony  to  the  faith,  as 
he  had  lived  for  its  propagation,  his  body  being"  cut  to 
pieces,  in  order  to  prevent  the  other  Christians  from 
collecting-  his  relics  for  more  honourable  interment. 

His  death  was  the  signal  for  innumerable  other 
massacres  in  this  and  other  kingdoms  of  Japan;  but 
nowhere  was  the  heathen  enmity  more  unrelentingly 
displayed  than  in  the  once  flourishing-  and  Christian 
king-dom  of  Arima.  The  king'  of  that  country  had 
indeed  caused  all  his  children  to  be  brought  up  Chris- 
tians ;  but  the  eldest,  Michael,  by  no  means  responded  to 
the  care  and  anxiety  which  had  been  lavished  upon  him. 
Mean,  heartless,  and  ambitious,  he  possessed  less  of  the 
convictions  of  a  Christian  convert  than  of  that  lust  of 
power  and  worldly  honour  which  especially  distinguished 
his  heathen  ancestors, — a  passion  which  ultimately  caused 
him  to  stop  at  no  means,  however  base  and  wicked, 
whereby  he  mig-ht  be  enabled  to  gratify  his  desires. 

Actuated  by  this  double  motive,  he  divorced  his 
legitimate  wife  for  the  purpose  of  espousing-  the  daughter 
of  the  Kumbo ;  the  old  king,  Christian  though  he  was, 
weakly  and  wickedly  connived  at  this  intrigue,  and  had 
to  mourn  for  the  rest  of  his  days  over  the  mingled  sin 
and  folly  of  his  conduct;  for  Michael,  false  to  his  father 
as  he  had  been  treacherous  to  his  God,  did  not  hesitate 
to  use  his  new  wife's  influence  at  court  in  order  to  wrest 
the  government  of  Arima  out  of  his  hands.  This  reverse 
brought  the  old  monarch  to  his  senses.  Like  another 
David,  he  confessed  that  he  had  sinned ;  and  acknow- 
ledging that  the  God  upon  whose  laws  he  had  trampled 
had  dealt  justly  by  him,  he  accepted  his  sentence  with- 
out a  murmur,  and  led  a  most  exemplary  and  penitential 
life  in  the  exile  to  which  his  son  had  consigned  him. 
By  and  by,  however,  the  latter,  fearing-  lest  some  future 
change  of  fortune  might  restore  him  to  the  Kumbo's 


126  JAPAN. 

favour,  obtained  from  that  monarch  an  order  for  his 
execution. 

The  choice  of  suicide,  ns  the  more  honourable  mode 
of  death,  was  given  to  him  ;  but  the  king*  made  on 
answer  worthy  of  his  better  days :  "  He  wanted,"  he 
said,  "  neither  courage  nor  resolution  to  die  by  his  own 
hand:  but  the  law  of  God  forbade  it,  and  he  chose  rathe* 
to  pass  -for  a  coward  in  the  eyes  of  men  than  to  prove 
really  a  rebel  in  the  sight  of  God." 

There  was  no  priest  to  soothe  and  encourage  him  in 
his  dying*  moments ;  but  his  wife  Justa  remained  with 
him  to  the  last,  exhorting-  him  continually  to  repentance 
and  to  confidence  in  God.  Before  he  died  he  wrote  a 
letter  to  his  wicked  son  entreating*  his  forgiveness  (as  if 
he  were  the  injurer  and  the- other  but  his  victim);  and 
then,  having  caused  the  history  of  the  Passion  .to  be 
read  aloud,  he  submitted  with  patience  and  firmness  to 
his  fate. 

Michael  might  now  appear  to  have  rid  himself  of 
the  only  lawful  claimant  of  his  power;  but  he  was  timid 
and  suspicious,  as  tyrants  ever  are,  and  lie  could  not 
forget  that  he  had  still  two  brothers,  who,  though  as 
yet  but  infants,  might  one  day  live  to  avenge  their 
father's  quarrel  and  to  take  possession  of  his  throne. 
They  were  the  children  of  a  second  marriage,  and  there- 
fore only  half-brothers  to  the  unnatural  Michael;  the 
eldest,  Francis,  was  not  more  than  eight  years  old,  and 
the  youngest  little  better  than  an  infant;  but,  thanks 
to  the  training  of  their  mother,  Justa,  they  possessed  a 
strength  of  purpose  in  the  matter  of  religion  which 
might  have  put  older  and  better  instructed  Christians  to 
the  blush.  "  Why  will  you  not  denounce  the  God  of  the 
Christians  ?"  demanded  Michael's  heathen  wife,  pausing 
in  the  midst  of  the  treacherous  caresses  she  was  lavish- 
ing on  Francis :  but  the  boy  only  answered,  "  that  he 
would  rather  die ;"  and,  again,  when  the  youngest  was 
urged  to  put  aside  the  beads  which  he  wore  about  his 
neck,   he   replied,  "that   he   would  not,   lest  people 


CH.  VII.]  JAPAN.  127 

should  say  he  had  renounced  the  faith."'  Answers 
such  as  these  soon  set  the  seal  upon  their  fate.  Michael 
felt,  or  fancied,  that  with  such  a  strong-  bias  in  favour 
of  the  Christian  religion,  the  eyes  of  all  others  of  that 
persuasion  (and  it  numbered  already  almost  the  entire 
population  of  the  kingdom)  would  he  fixed  upon  them 
as  upon  their  legitimate  chieftains.  There  could  he  no 
truce  to  his  jealous  fears  while  they  were  living,  and  so 
they  were  condemned  to  die.  But  while  he  resolved 
upon  the  deed,  he  yet  shrank  from  the  odium  which  it 
would  attach  to  his  name;  and  for  full  two  months 
they  were  kept  immured  in  the  vaults  of  his  own 
palace,  before  he  ventured  to  issue  the  order  for  their 
execution. 

We  are  indebted  to  a  Christian  servant,  by  name 
Ignatius,  for  a  touching  account  of  their  last  moments, 
as  he  afterwards  gave  the  story  to  the  Jesuits  at  Nan- 
gasaki.  Accustomed  as  all  Japanese  children  are  from 
their  infancy  to  the  idea  of  murder,  probably  they  had 
all  along  had  some  presage  of  their  own  future  fate;  for 
the  entire  period  of  their  imprisonment  seems  to  have 
been  spent  by  them  in  fasting  and  in  prayer.  Often 
their  guards  could  scarcely  prevail  upon  them  to  eat 
sufficient  for  the  preservation  of  life;  and  the  very 
night  upon  which  they  died,  Francis  subjected  himself 
to  an  additional  abstinence,  in  punishment  for  some 
word  or  action  wliich  he  fancied  had  been  unkind  to 
his  keeper.  Long  also  after  his  little  brother  was  fast 
asleep,  moved  as  it  seemed  by  some  hidden  impulse, 
he  continued  to  watch  in  prayer,  until,  yielding-  at  length 
to  the  remonstrances  of  his  faithful  friend  IgTtatius, 
the  little  prince  prepared  for  rest.  First,  however,  he 
paused  in  prayer  before  a  pious  picture ;  and  Ignatius, 
knowing  what  was  going  to  happen,  seized  the  op- 
portunity to  praise  the  practice  of  recommending  the 
soul  to  the  Blessed  Virgin  as  if  it  was  to  be  called  to 
its  account  that  very  night.  Quick  as  lightning  the 
child  acted  upon  the  suggestion,  and  said  aloud,  "  By 
the  passion  and  death  of  Jesus  Christ,  be  mindful  of 


128 


JAPAN. 


me  this  night,  0  Mary !  Mother  and  mistress  of  my 
heart,  to  you  I  commend  both  body  and  soul,  and  I 
put  my  eternal  safety  into  your  hands." 

So  beautiful  and  appropriate  was  this  impromptu 
prayer,  that  it  must  have  seemed  as  an  inspiration  to 
his  awe-struck  listener ;  but  he  might,  not  reveal  his 
emotion ;  and  when  the  child  had  taken  holy  water,  and 
laid  himself  down  to  sleep  with  the  sweet  names  of 
Jesus  and  Mary  yet  trembling*  on  his  innocent  lips, 
Ignatius  left  the  room,  unable  to  endure  the  cruel 
tragedy  which  he  knew  was  about  to  follow.  Next 
morning,  when  he  returned  to  his  post,  he  found  both 
the  infants  lying  drowned  in  their  own  blood ;  but, 
with  a  merciful  cruelty,  the  executioners  had  stabbed 
without  arousing  them  from  their  slumbers,  so  that 
they  passed  from  life  to  death  before  they  had  even 
feared  or  fancied  that  a  murderer  was  at  hand. 

Meanwhile  Michael  proceeded  every  day  to  commit 
fresh  acts  of  cruelty  against  the  Christians  of  Arima. 
Under  the  guidance  of  his  chief  minister  Safiori,  who 
in  his  turn  was  plotting  for  the  crown,  of  which  Michael 
himself  had  robbed  his  father,  he  had  already  pulled 
down  the  churches,  overthrown  the  crosses,  sent  hun- 
dreds of  the  principal  Christians  into  exile,  and  banished 
the  Jesuit  fathers,  to  whose  influence  he  attributed  their 
constancy  in  the  struggle;  and  having  thus,  as  he 
hoped,  destroyed  every  landmark  to  which  they  could 
confidently  look  for  guidance,  he  published  an  edict 
commanding  them  all  to  embrace  idolatry  or  die.  At 
the  first  mutterings  of  the  coming  storm,  the  Christians, 
by  general  consent,  had  enrolled  themselves  in  a  con- 
fraternity, styled  especially  "  of  martyrs,"  because,  be- 
sides the  usual  practices  of  prayer,  fasting,  and  penance, 
common  to  all  similar  associations,  the  members  pledged 
themselves  to  suffer  loss  of  property,  banishment,  or 
martyrdom  itself,  faithfully  and  joyfully,  for  the  Name 
of  Jesus.  This  confraternity  afterwards  extended  itself 
over  other  parts  of  Japan;  and  it  was  even  adopted  by 
the  little  children,  who  were  destined  to  play  nearly  as 


CH.  VII.]  JAPAN.  129 

prominent  a  part  in  the  coming-  persecutions  as  their 
parents  themselves,  and  to  whom  it  was  therefore  given 
by  the  Jesuit  fathers,  with  rules  and  practices  adapted 
to  their  tender  year?.  repared  and  strengthened 

for  the  struggle,  the  Christians  waited  in  patient  cou- 
rage its  commencement;  and  they  had  not  long  to 
wait.  A  celebrated  bonze  was  sent  for  to  Ariina,  avow- 
edly for  the  purpose  of  reconverting*  the  Christian  re- 
cusants to  the  religion  of  their  fathers ;  but  his  sermons 
were  unattended,  or  attended  by  those  who  went  less  to 
listen  than  to  refute-  nor  would  the  Christians  even 
visit  him  without  having-  their  beads  suspended  from 
their  necks, — a  circumstance  which  caused  him  all  the 
deeper  mortification  that  the  wearing*  of  a  rosary  was 
always  considered  by  the  Japanese  as  most  unequivo- 
cal declaration  of  Christianity.  In  vain  the  king*  com- 
manded, and  the  queen  received  the  missionary  bonze 
with  every  pos  ible  reverence  and  submission  at  the 
palace ;  the  very  ladies  of  her  court  refused  obedience. 
They  would  not  even  hearken  to  the  teacher  of  idola- 
try; their  precious  rosaries  still  sparkled  on  their  necks; 
and  imprisonment,  ill-usag*e,  and  starvation,  were  all 
employed  without  success  to  compel  them  to  retract 
their  spirited  determination. 

Thus  foiled  and  defeated  at  the  very  footsteps  of  his 
throne,  Michael  sent  for  a  nobleman  of  the  name  of 
Thomas,  renowned  for  his  prowess  both  by  sea  and  by 
land,  and  with  every  art  of  persuasion  in  his  power, 
sought  to  induce  him  to  yield  obedience  to  his  orders. 
The  blunt  soldier  listened  impatiently  to  the  miserable 
sophisms  of  his  chieftain,  and  then  flatly  told  him,  that 
as  a  soldier  would  be  deserving*  of  death  for  deserting* 
his  colours,  so  he  should  consider  himself  the  most  des- 
picable of  human  beings,  if  for  fear  or  favour  of  earthly 
monarch  he  could  desert  that  King*  of  kings  to  whom 
on  the  day  of  his  baptism  he  had  sworn  allegiance; 
ending*  (so  great  was  his  indignation  that  he  could  not 
contain  himself)  with  a  rough  speech,  to  the  effect  that 
he  hated  traitors  as  he  hated  treason,  and  would  prefer 
& 


. 


130  JAPAN. 

death  itself  to  the  baseness  of  committing-  the  one,  or  of 
being"  associated  with  the  other.  Such  a  speech  to  such 
a  man  the  Christian  well  knew  could  only  be  uttered  at 
the  hazard  of  his  head ;  no  sooner,  therefore,  had  he 
left  the  royal  presence,  than  he  sent  for  one  of  the  Je- 
suit fathers,  then  lying-  hid  in  the  city,  and  prepared 
himself  for  death.  When  urged  by  his  friends,  for  his 
own  sake,  and  for  the  sake  of  his  family,  who  would 
otherwise  be  involved  in  his  ruin,  to  seek  safety  by 
flight,  he  answered  with  characteristic  spirit,  "  that  so 
far  from  flying-  martyrdom,  he  would  go  to  the  end  of 
the  earth  to  seek  it ;  and  that  he  loved  his  children  alii 
too  well  to  think  of  depriving  them  of  a  blessing  which 
he  coveted  for  himself  above  the  empire  of  the  world." 
_/  The  next  day  the  governor  of  the  city  invited  him 

to  dinner  (so  strangely  do  they  manage  these  affairs  in 
Japan) ;  and  Thomas,  well  aware  of  his  approaching 
fate,  took  an  affectionate  farewell  of  his  wife  and  chil- 
dren before  accepting  the  ominous  invitation.  While 
he  sat  at  table,  his  host  presented  him  with  a  sword, 
asking  his  opinion  as  to  its  capabilities  for  the  decapi- 
tation of  a  human  head.  Thomas,  looking  at  it  care- 
lessly, pronounced  it  well  made,  and  fitted  for  such  a 
work ;  whereupon  the  governor,  receiving  it  out  of  his 
hands,  stabbed  him  dead  on  the  spot.  A  few  hours 
afterwards  his  brother,  quite  as  uncompromising  a 
Christian  as  himself,  suffered  a  similar  fate;  his  mo- 
ther Martha  and  his  two  young  sons  were  also  con- 
demned ;  while  his  wife  and  daughter  were,  by  a  caprice 
of  mercy,  or  perhaps  of  cruelty,  exempted  from  the  sen- 
tence. Very  different  from  the  ordinary  effects  of  such 
opposite  judgments  were  the  feelings  elicited  by  them 
on  the  present  occasion  :  those  who  were  to  die  blessed 
God,  in  an  ecstasy  of  pious  joy,  that  He  had  culled 
them  to  suffer  for  the  faith ;  while  she  who  was  to  live 
— a  widow,  and  now  all  but  childless — gave  way  to  an 
agony  of  grief  at  the  double  loss  she  was  destined 
to  endure.  While  she  wept  over  her  cruel  lot,  Martha 
called  her  grandchildren,  and  embracing  them  tenderly, 


CH.  VII.]  JAPAN,  131 

told  them,  that  as  their  father  had  died  for  Jesus  Christ, 
so  she  and  they  were  now  to  do  the  same,  and  then  to  go 
and  live  with  him  in  heaven.  The  children  quietly  an- 
swered, "  that  there  was  nothing'  which  they  wished  for 
better ;"  asking',  at  the  same  time,  "  when  it  was  to  be." 
"  Just  now,"  she  said  ;  "  so  go  and  take  leave  of  your 
mother,  and  prepare  yourselves  for  death."  With  smil- 
ing- countenances,  the  children  hastened  to  obey;  and 
having-  distributed  their  toys  among  their  playfellows, 
and  made  some  parting-  presents  to  then1  nurses,  they 
clothed  themselves  in  the  white  robes  which  Martha 
had  taken  care  to  provide  for  the  occasion,  and  knelt 
before  their  mother,  saying-,  "  Adieu,  dear  mother ;  we 
are  going  to  be  martyred."  She  was  weeping-  at  the  in- 
stant as  if  her  very  heart  would  break ;  but  fearing  to 
discourage  her  children,  or  cast  the  shadow  of  her  own 
maternal  grief  over  their  coming  hour  of  trial,  she  em- 
braced them,  saying,  u  Go,  dear  children ;  and  remem- 
bering Him  who  died  for  you,  tread  courageously  in 
the  footsteps  of  your  father  and  your  uncle.  Behold 
them  stretching-  out  their  arms  to  help  you;  behold 
the  saints  and  angels  with  crowns  prepared  to  set  upon 
your  heads ;  behold  Jesus  Christ  Himself  inviting  you 
to  His  most  sweet  embraces ;  and  when  you  reach  the 
place  of  execution,  show  yourselves  to  be  indeed  His 
followers  by  your  contempt  of  death.  Fall  on  your 
knees,  loosen  your  collars,  join  your  hands,  bow  down 
your  heads,  and  cry  out  Jesus !  Mary !  with  your  latest 
breath.  Oh,  how  wretched  am  I  that  I  cannot  be  with 
you  in  that  hour !"  Then,  hiding  her  face  in  the  arms 
of  her  little  ones,  the  poor  mother  burst  into  an  uncon- 
trollable fit  of  weeping,  moving  the  very  soldiers  to  such 
compassion,  that,  feartul  of  yielding  to  their  feelings, 
they  tore  the  children  from  her  embraces,  and  almost 
threw  them  into  the  palanquin  which  was  to  convey 
them  and  their  grandmother  to  the  place  of  execution. 
During  the  short  transit  thither,  that  venerable  Chris- 
tian took  care  to  occupy  the  little  victims  in  prayer  and 
pious  ejaculations ;  nor  did  she  cease  her  guardian-care 


1313  JAPAN. 

when  they  reached  the  fatal  spot;  for  she  stood  and  saw 
them  one  by  one  butchered  before  her  eyes,  and  then, 
advancing-  with  a  grave  and  stately  pace,  she  in  her 
turn  submitted  to  the  sword. 

After  this  execution,  eight  of  the  principal  citizens 
of  Arima  were  summoned  to  the  presence  of  their  king-, 
and  there  commanded  to  abjure  the  faith;  while  he, 
persecuting-  tyrant  as  he  was,  had  the  face  to  tell  them 
that  he  only  required  an  external  submission,  since  he 
too  was  in  heart  a  Christian  like  themselves,  though 
compelled  for  the  present  by  the  emperor's  orders  to 
conceal  his  faith.  Five  out  of  the  eight  agreed  to  this 
infamous  proposal ;  but  four  of  them  afterwards  sincerely 
repented.  The  others  were  not  to  be  cajoled  out  of  their 
convictions,  and  were  consequently  condemned  with  their 
families  to  the  penalty  of  fire.  As  soon  as  their  sen- 
tence was  made  known  atNangasaki,  one  of  the  Fathers 
came  privately  to  Arima  to  give  spiritual  succour  to 
the  captives,  and  thousands  of  Christians  also  nocked 
from  every  part  of  the  country  to  witness  their  execu- 
tion. 

Never  before  perhaps  had  the  Church  presented 
such  a  spectacle  to  the  world ;  and  possibly  never  will 
she  offer  such  another  again.  For  three  whole  days 
that  vast  multitude  remained  camped  in  the  open  fields, 
patiently  waiting  for  the  execution  of  their  brethren : 
but  their  presence  struck  terror  into  the  heart  of  the  cra- 
ven king  ;  and  dreading  lest  they  should  either  rescue 
the  prisoners  or  seize  upon  the  town,  he  faltered  in  his 
purpose.  It  never  occurred  to  him  that  they  of  whom 
he  reared  such  things  would  as  soon  have  thought  of 
robbing  him  of  his  material  crown  as  of  depriving  the 
martyrs  of  their  palm;  they  had,  in  fact,  been  careful 
to  come  without,  even  their  ordinary  weapons  of  defence, 
in  order  to  avoid  the  possibility  or  a  doubt  as  to  their 
peaceable  intentions ;  and  no  sooner  did  they  suspect 
the  cause  of  the  delay,  than  some  of  the  gravest  of  their 
number  waited  on  the  governor  to  explain  that  they 
were  merely  there  to  witness  the  ceremony,   and  to 


CH.  VII.J  JAPAN.  133 

promise  that  there  should  he  neither  tumult  nor  resist- 
ance if  they  were  permitted  to  remain.  Thus  encouraged 
•and  reassured,  preparations  for  the  martyrdom  went  on 
apace.  A  wide  plain  just  heneath  the  castle  of  the 
town  was  chosen  for  the  purpose;  the  prisoners  were 
confessed  and  communicated  by  a  Jesuit  father;  and 
on  the  day  appointed  they  came  forth,  dressed  in  their 
robes  of  ceremony,  and  with  their  hands  tied  behind 
their  backs,  accompanied  by  upwards  of  40,000  Chris- 
tians, bearing-  lights  in  their  hands  and  garlands  on 
their  heads,  and  singing  the  Litanies  of  our  Blessed 
Lady  as  they  went  along.  Among  the  victims  was  a 
boy  not  more  than  eleven  years  old,  and  a  young  girl 
called  Magdalen,  who  having  already  made  a  vow  of 
virginity,  had  always  led  a  life  holy  and  pure  as  that 
of  the  martyr- virgins  of  old. 

These  children,  as  well  as  their  elder  companions, 
all  affectionately  embraced  the  stakes  to  which  they 
were  afterwards  tied;  then  Gaspar,  the  chief  of  the 
Confraternity  of  Martyrs,  unrolling  a  banner  upon  which 
was  displayed  a  figure  of  the  Son  of  God,  bound  like 
themselves  to  a  pillar,  made  them  a  brief  exhortation 
to  perseverance ;  and  even  as  he  was  speaking,  fire  was 
set  to  the  piles  of  combustible  materials,  which  had  been 
laid  at  a  considerable  distance  from  the  martyrs,  for  the 
cruel  purpose  of  prolonging  then'  tortures.  As  the  first 
gleam  of  this  fearful  element  of  death  shot  upwards  to 
the  skies,  the  entire  multitude  fell  with  one  accord  upon 
their  knees  ;  and  still,  as  the  fire  drew  near  its  victims, 
the  plain  re-echoed  with  the  oft-repeated  "  Jesus !  Mary !" 
— "  Jesus  !  Mary  !"  of  the  spectators,  who  sadly  struck 
their  breasts  in  penance  for  their  own  sins,  and  to  obtain 
the  grace  of  perseverance  for  their  brethren.  Nearer 
and  nearer  yet  it  hurried ;  but  even  above  the  roar  of 
the  rapidly-approaching  flames,  and  the  sighs  and 
lamentations  of  those  who  watched  them,  the  voice  of 
the  martyrs  might  be  heard,  praising  God,  and  ani- 
mating each  other  to  constancy  and  courage.  At  length 
the  fiery  sea  had  reached  them,  and  their  cords  were 


134  JAPAN. 

burst ;  and  then  every  eye  was  riveted  on  the  child,  tc 
see  whether  he  would  stand  of  his  own  free  will  in  that 
burning-  scorching*  furnace.  A  moment's  pause — he 
leaves  his  stake ;  but  it  is  only  to  run  through  the 
dense  flames,  until  he  has  reached  and  flung  his  arms 
around  his  mother ;  while  the  young-  Magdalen  avails 
herself  of  her  freedom  to  stoop  to  the  burning  embers, 
and,  picking  up  the  living-  coals,  set  them  as  a  garland 
of  roses  on  her  head.  She  died  almost  in  the  very 
effort ;  but  the  mother  of  the  child  James,  with  a  he- 
roism of  even  perhaps  a  higher  order,  found  strength 
in  the  midst  of  her  own  tortures  to  speak  words  of  cou- 
rage to  her  little  one,  until  death  released  them  from 
their  sufferings.  The  flames  had  scorched  the  bodies, 
but  had  not  consumed  them ;  and  they  were  carried 
off,  together  with  the  blackened  and  half-burnt  stakes, 
as  precious  relics  by  the  assembled  Christians.  The 
bodies  were  laid  to  rest  in  the  church  of  Nangasaki ; 
where  over  their  honoured  graves  was  afterwards  erected 
a  monument,  telling*  alike  of  their  heroic  end,  and  call- 
ing upon  all  who  read  to  follow  in  their  footsteps. 

The  tiger  had  now  thoroughly  tasted  blood ;  and  he 
hesitated  no  longer.  Execution  after  execution  followed 
in  Arima ;  until  the  infatuated  Michael  was  deluded  into 
resigning  his  kingdom  to  the  Kumbo,  and  demanding 
another  in  its  stead.  The  arch-traitor  who  guided  his 
counsels  had  led  him  to  believe  that  by  this  manoeuvre 
the  emperor  would  be  induced  to  assig*n  to  him  a  larger 
and  wealthier  government :  but  the  result  only  proved 
the  folly  of  the  king  and  the  acuteness  of  his  adviser ; 
for  Michael,  to  his  inexpressible  mortification,  was  re- 
manded to  an  inferior  kingdom, — while  that  of  Arima 
v  as  bestowed  upon  Safiori,  who  from  first  to  last  had 
'  <  en  plotting  his  destruction. 


CH.  VIII.]  JAPAN.  135 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

Treachery  of  Dutch  Protestants.  General  persecution  of  the  Chris- 
tians. Heroic  conduct  of  Christian  virgins.  The  Jesuits  and 
others  banished  from  Miako.  Exile  and  death  of  Justo  LJcon- 
dono.  More  fierce  and  universal  persecut  on.  Particulars  of 
the  sufferings  of  the  martyrs  at  Coch  notzu,  Nangasaki,  Miako, 
and  elsewhere. 

The  year  1614  dawned  darkly  on  the  prospects  of  the 
Church  of  Japan ;  for  with  it  commenced  that  direct 
imperial  persecution,  which,  however  it  might  now  and 
then  be  modified  by  circumstances,  yet  never  really 
ceased  its  efforts,  until  by  the  stake  or  by  the  sword, 
by  the  boilng  waters  of  Ungen  or  the  frozen  rivers  of 
Xindai,  the  last  germs  of  Christianity  had  been  rooted 
out  of  the  soil.  Up  to  this  period  the  Kumbo  had  been 
content,  by  a  nicely-adjusted  system  of  neutrality,  to 
countenance,  without  absolutely  authorising,  the  cruel- 
ties of  the  inferior  kings ;  but  unhappily  the  events  of 
each  succeeding  year  had  added  strength  and  consist- 
ency to  his  own  suspicions  of  the  Christians.  The 
Spanish  captain  had  by  his  boasting  cast  the  seed; 
the  vast  and  ever-increasing  possessions  of  his  nation 
in  the  Indies  and  elsewhere  had  fostered  it  in  the  bud ; 
but  to  the  Protestants  of  Holland  was  reserved  the 
honour  or  the  infamy  of  carefully  cherishing  into  fullest 
vigour  that  fell  upas-tree  of  suspicion,  beneath  whose 
deadly  shade  the  Christianity  of  Japan  was  destined  to 
expire. 

Never,  perhaps,  since  that  dark  hour  when  Christ 
Himself  was  sold  for  silver  to  the  Jews,  had  the  doctrines 
which  He  came  to  teach  been  betrayed  more  deliberately, 
or  in  a  more  wholesale  manner,  than  upon  this  occasion. 
For  the  wicked,  or  perhaps  only  the  inconsiderate  word 
of  one  of  her  careless  sons,  Spain  had  given  in  atone- 


136  JAPAN. 

raent  the  blood  of  her  missionaries,  the  treasures  of  her 
kings,  the  charities  and  prayers  of  thousands  of  her 
people.  Portugal  might  boast  that  Christianity  was 
indebted  for  the  very  fact  of  its  existence  in  Japan  to 
the  zenl  and  exertions  of  her  merchant-princes.  They 
it  was  who  had  brought  Anger  to  the  feet  of  Xavier, 
and  Xavier  himself  to  the  court  of  the  Satsumian  mon- 
arch ;  they  it  was  who  had  reverently  escorted  him 
into  the  presence-chamber  of  the  almost  inapproachable 
Kumba;  they  it  was  who  had  put  back  to  Bongo  to 
rescue  or  to  die  with  their  saintly  missionary,  when 
wind  and  tide  had  already  carried  them  far  from  the 
murderous  machinations  of  the  bonzes;  and  finally,  they 
it  was  too,  who,  not  once  only,  but  on  many  occasions, 
setting  the  interests  of  Jesus  above  those  of  their  own 
material  commerce,  left  a  rich  and  luxurious  city  to 
traffic  at  a  poorer  port,  in  order  that  they  might  thereby 
encourage  the  liberal  sentiments  of  the  ruler  in  the  one 
case,  or  repress  by  motives  of  personal  gain  the  perse- 
cuting designs  of  a  despot  in  the  other.  The  glory  of 
Portugal  may  have  gone  out  of  her,  and  the  names  of 
such  men  as  the  Gamas  and  Alvarez  may  no  longer  be 
inscribed  on  the  annals  of  her  kingdom ;  but  the  virtues 
of  the  dead  are  not  to  be  effaced  by  the  degeneracy  of 
the  living;  and  wherever  honest  history  is  read,  or  truth 
prevails  over  the  distorted  fictions  of  prejudice  and  error, 
the  crime  of  treading  out  the  expiring-  embers  of  Chris- 
tianity in  Japan  will  be  a  stain  on  the  shield  of  Holland; 
while  of  the  Portuguese  it  must  still  be  written,  that 
but  for  their  fostering  charity,  and  unprompted  and 
most  disinterested  zeal,  thousands  of  noble-hearted  mar- 
tyrs would  never  have  won  their  palms,  and  thousands 
and  tens  of  thousands  of  saintly  and  most  faithful  Chris- 
tians would  have  lived  and  died,  and  been  gathered  to 
their  fathers,  unsanctified  by  the  saving  waters  of  bap- 
tism, unblest  by  the  knowledge  and  love  of  Jesus  Christ. 
Had  the  Dutchmen  been  heathens,  there  might  have 
been  something  to  reprobate,  but  nothing  to  wonder  at 
in  their  conduct;   but  they  were  Christians,  pledged 


CH.  VIII J  JAPAN.  137 

by  that  name,  and  by  all  which  that  name  implies,  to 
the  belief  that  faith  in  the  Redeemer  is  necessary  to 
salvation  ;  yet  they  acted  towards  Christianity  the  part 
of  Judas,  and  for  the  same  mean  motive ;  and  it  was  an 
evil  hour  for  the  Japanese,  and  for  their  children,  and 
their  children's  children,  when  love  of  lucre  brought 
the  money-minded  men  of  Protestant  Holland  to  traf- 
fic on  their  shores.  Small  chance  had  they  with  their 
cloth,  and  cheese  (which  latter  the  Japanese  never  eat), 
and  their  other  useful  but  homely  wares,  of  winning' 
the  favour  of  this  luxurious  people  from  the  ships  of 
Spain  and  Portugal,  laden  as  they  ever  were  with  the 
treasures  of  the  Indies ;  and  no  sooner  did  they  become 
cognisant  of  this  fact,  than,  with  a  worldly  wisdom  as 
far-seeing  as  its  morality  was  detestable,  they  resolved, 
if  they  could  not  successfully  compete  with  their  rivals, 
treacherously  to  drive  them  from  the  market  altogether. 

The  unlucky  saying  of  the  Spaniard  had  long  since 
become  a  sort  of  bye-word  in  the  nation ;  and  quite  as 
patent  to  the  people  were  the  suspicions  it  had  engen- 
dered in  the  minds  of  their  rulers.  The  Dutchmen  (and 
there  was  an  Englishman  among  them  too)  seized  upon 
the  calumny,  and  plying  the  Kumbo  with  false  and  exag- 
gerated tales  of  the  ambition  of  the  King  of  Spain,  mali- 
ciously represented  the  missionaries  to  be  mere  political 
emissaries  in  his  pay,  saying  that  they  were  men  so  noto- 
rious for  intrigue  as  to  have  been  long  since  banished 
from  England,  Sweden,  Denmark,  Holland,  and,  in  fact, 
from  every  country  where  the  monarch  valued  his 
authority,  or  wished  to  keep  possession  of  his  crown. 
This  foul  slander  speedily  produced  its  proper  and  ex- 
pected fruit. 

If  Christian  kings  feared  Christian  priests,  what  had 
not  he,  an  idolater,  to  dread  from  their  machinations  ? 
And  if  Christian  kings  were  not  ashamed  to  drive 
Christian  priests  out  of  their  dominions,  why  should  he, 
the  emperor  of  a  heathen  land,  ruling  too  over  bonzes 
most  hostile  to  their  teaching,  hesitate  to  do  so  also  ? 
In  fact,  he  did  not  hesitate.     Persecution  was  almost 


138  JAPAN. 

instantly  resolved  on;  but  as  it  was  found,  on  mqrriry, 
that  the  palace  itself  was  filled  with  Christians,  he  was 
obliged  to  commence  the  projected  work  among  the 
members  of  his  own  household.  Fourteen  of  those 
more  immediately  in  attendance  on  his  own  person  or 
that  of  the  queen,  were  driven  into  banishment ;  and 
among-  them  was  that  Corean  Julia,  who  from  the 
desolate  rock  to  which  she  was  exiled,  wrote  such  won- 
derful things  to  the  Jesuit  fathers  of  the  consolation 
with  which  her  soul  was  overflowing  in  the  midst  of 
her  desert ;  and  Didaques,  a  young*  man  of  such  holy 
mind  and  innocent  manners,  that  his  very  name  had 
passed  into  a  proverb  for  purity  among  the  heathens ; 
and  to  say  that  such  a  one  had  become  a  "  Didaques/' 
was  only  the  familiar  mode  of  expressing  that  he  had 
passed  from  the  vices  of  a  heathen  court  to  a  more 
edifying  and  exemplary  way  of  living. 

The  first  blow  was  now  struck ;  and  in  the  Kumbo's 
present  disposition  but  little  was  needed  to  ensure  its 
repetition.  The  attendance  of  the  Jesuit  fathers  at  the 
execution  of  a  Christian  criminal  gave  great  offence, 
and  a  hasty  order  was  immediately  issued  for  the 
burning  alive  of  every  person  who  would  not  conform 
to  the  religion  of  the  state.  Miako,  like  the  palace, 
was  filled  with  converts ;  and  the  next  morning  innu- 
merable stakes,  set  by  the  Christians  each  at  the  door 
of  his  own  dwelling,  gave  notice  that  nearly  half  the 
population  of  the  city  would  rather  die  than  deny  the 
faith.  The  execution  of  the  sentence  would  have  made 
a  desert  of  Miako ;  it  was  not  even  to  be  thought  of, 
and  every  effort  was  therefore  made  to  reduce  them  by 
other  means  to  obedience.  Bribes,  threats,  and  strata- 
gems, were  tried  alternately,  and  tried  in  vain ;  and  then 
followed  every  possible  species  of  violence  short  of  the 
actual  infliction  of  death.  Men,  women,  and  children 
of  every  age  and  rank,  were  tied  naked  into  sacks  par- 
tially filled  with  sharp  straws  and  other  wounding 
substances;  and  after  having  been  carried  about  the 
town  upon  men's  shoulders,  exposed  to  the  jeers  and 


CH.  VIII.]  JAPAN.  139 

insults  of  the  mob,  were  thrown  aside  with  as  little 
ceremony  as  if  they  had  been  indeed  sacks  of  straw, 
being-  sometimes  left  for  more  than  twenty-four  hours 
at  a  time  exposed  to  the  cold  and  biting-  air  of  winter, 
piled  and  huddled  one  upon  another  in  such  a  careless 
fashion,  that  many  of  them  narrowly  escaped  with  life. 
This  disgraceful  treatment  was  practised  towards  even 
certain  pious  women  who  had  taken  vows  of  chastity 
and  lived  in  community,  spending*  their  time  in  deeds 
of  charity  and  devotion.  Moreover,  with  that  hatred  of 
all  that  is  holy  and  pure  which  from  the  days  of  Cain 
to  the  present  hour  has  been  the  tribute  that  vice  ever 
pays  to  virtue,  a  still  deeper  ignominy  was  reserved  for 
these  pure  virgins, — the  same  that  had  been  prepared 
for  some  of  the  Christian  virgins  of  ancient  Rome.  But 
He  who  had  clothed  an  Agones  with  a  halo  of  light  to 
defend  her  against  those  who  sought  to  rob  her  of  her 
dearest  treasure,  was  not  wanting  to  these  Christian 
maidens  of  Japan,  who  so  earnestly  invoked  His  help. 
He  did  not  indeed  interpose  miraculously  in  their  behalf: 
but  He  inspired  them  with  a  courage  still  more  miracu- 
lous ;  and  when  the  tempters  came  to  seek  their  prey, 
they  found  them  so  bleeding  and  disfigured  by  the 
wounds  which  they  had  inflicted  on  their  own  faces,  that 
in  horror  and  disgust  they  were  fain  to  withdraw.  Such 
scenes  as  these  were  afterwards  frequently  repeated  in 
other  parts  of  the  empire,  not  merely  upon  religious 
women,  but  also  upon  those  whose  social  ties  still  re- 
tained them  in  the  world ;  and  always  and  in  all  places 
every  attempt  to  degrade  them  was  met  by  those  de- 
fenceless beings  in  the  same  undaunted  spirit  of  resist- 
ance which  had  saved  them  at  Miako ;  while  on  the 
other  hand,  in  one  or  two  instances  it  elicited  acts  of 
apostasy  from  men,  who,  although  they  had  heroically 
endured  scourge  and  torture  in  their  own  persons,  yet 
lacked  the  necessary  faith  and  courage  to  endure  the 
insults  heaped  on  their  wives  and  daughters. 

Enraged  at  finding  himself  foiled  in  every  attempt  by 
the  constancy  of  the  Christians,  the  Kumoo  proceeded 


140  JAPAN. 

to  banish  them  by  hundreds,  not  merely  out  of  Miako, 
but  out  of  Japan ;  and  in  this  sentence"  the  Jesuit  and 
Franciscan  fathers  were  formally  included.  Fortunately 
most  of  the  former,  in  anticipation  of  some  such  event, 
had  been  dispersed  throughout  the  country  in  various 
disguises  :  but  it  was  impossible  for  those  living-  openly 
in  the  college  to  evade  it ;  and  a  sad  day  it  was,  both 
for  them  and  for  their  flock,  when  they  found  themselves 
forced  to  depart  from  a  Church,  which  in  sunshine  and 
in  storm  they  had  now  governed  for  upwards  of  fifty 
years.  Fifty  years  it  was  indeed  since  Father  Villela  had, 
by  his  heroic  patience,  won  the  city  to  his  mission ;  and 
though  during  this  long  lapse  of  time  the  Jesuits  had  oc- 
casionally been  compelled  to  leave  it,  the  intervals  of  their 
absence  were  so  few,  and  of  such  short  duration,  that 
they  could  not  be  said  to  have  ever  really  relinquished 
it.  They  had  dwelt  there  in  peace,  even  when  persecution 
was  rife  in  other  kino-doms  of  the  country ;  and  their 
college,  which  had  existed  since  the  days  of  Nobunanga, 
had  become  the  resort  alike  of  all  classes  of  Christians 
as  well  as  of  heathens, — of  the  rich  as  well  as  of  the 
poor,— of  men  of  courtly  lives,  as  well  as  of  those  of 
learning  or  of  commerce.  Some  sought  them  for  the 
knowledge  of  Jesus  Christ ;  others  for  instruction  in 
mathematics  and  astronomy, — sciences  for  which  the 
Society  has  ever  been  justly  renowned  ;  indeed,  so  great 
was  the  thirst  of  the  Japanese  for  learning,  that  if  the 
Jesuits  had  chosen  to  throw  aside  their  missionary  cha- 
racter, and  to  apply  themselves  entirely  to  the  work  of 
secular  instruction,  they  would  have  easily  succeeded  in 
monopolising  to  themselves  the  highest  honours  and 
emoluments  of  the  state.  That  they  did  not  do  so  is  at 
once  the  sign  and  seal  of  their  missionary  vocation, 
and  the  only  answer  needed  to  the  foul  slander  of  their 
calumniators,  both  ancient  and  modern.* 

*  The  Japanese  still  retain  an  earnest  desire  to  acquire  that 
knowledge  which  is  denied  them  by  the  exclusiveness  of  their 
government  and  customs.  Even  within  the  last  lew  years,  a  Dutch- 
man, named  Laxman,  was  bribed  into  pledging  himself  to  remain 
among  them  ;  and  he  is  probably  at  this  moment  residing  at  Ycddo, 


CH.  VIII.]  JAPAN.  141 

Such  was  the  respect  and  reverence  in  which  they 
were  held  even  by  their  most  determined  enemies  in  the 
court  of  Japan,  that  they  were  permitted  to  say  a  fare- 
well Mass  publicly  in  their  church,  and  afterwards  to 
receive  the  adieus  of  their  sorrowful  Hock.  Vast  multi- 
tudes attended  upon  this  occasion-  and  when  High  Mass 
was  over,  the  Jesuits  proceeded  to  the  mournful  cere- 
mony of  stripping-  the  altars,  the  people  weeping-  piteously 
all  the  while,  and  the  fathers  nearly  as  broken-hearted 
as  themselves.  All  was  at  length  removed  that  could 
tempt  to  sacrilege;  the  sacred  vessels  and  robes  of 
ceremony  were  confided  to  the  care  of  such  of  the  Chris- 
tians as  could  best  be  relied  on,  the  church-doors 
flung-  open  for  all  who  might  choose  to  enter ;  and  the 
next  morning  the  fathers,  under  a  guard  of  soldiers, 
were  far  on  their  way  to  Nangasaki,  where  Safiori  had 
gladly  undertaken  the  task  of  their  embarkation.  At 
that  town  they  were  joined  by  such  numbers  of  prisoners, 
both  clerical  and  lay,  collected  from  all  parts  of  the 
country,  that  finally  sixty-three  Jesuits,  with  a  crowd 
of  converts  of  every  age,  sex,  and  condition,  were  em- 
barked for  Macao;  while  twenty-three  others,  besides 
a  proportionate  number  of  Franciscans,  Dominicans, 
and  Augustinians  (for  each  of  these  orders  had  now 
missions  in  Japan),  were  despatched  to  the  Manillas. 

With  these  last  went  Justo  Ucondono  and  his  fa- 
mily, again  in  poverty  and  disgrace  for  the  sake  of  Jesus 
Christ :  but  this  time  with  the  additional  hardship  of  a 
sentence  of  exile  from  his  native  shores.  Most  of  the 
missionaries  with  whom  he  was  embarked  returned  at 
different  intervals,  and  in  various  disguises,  to  Japan. 
He  remained  at  the  Manillas,  where  he  had  been  re- 
ceived by  the  governor  with  all  the  courtesy  and  affec- 
tion due  to  a  man  of  such  tried  and  eminent  merit ; 
though  so  natural  to  his  own  true-hearted  zeal  did  his 
conduct  appear,  that  to  the  last  clay  of  his  life  he  never 

the  present  capital,  employed  in  the  construction  of  charts,  and 
making  astronomical  observations.  What  would  not  such  a  people 
have  done  for  the  missionaries,  whose  lahours  were  gratuitous  I 


142  JAPAN. 

could  understand  why  or  wherefore  such  honour  had 
been  lavished  upon  him.  "  I  have  done  nothing*  for 
the  King  of  Spain/'  he  was  wont  to  say  with  a  kind  of 
blunt  simplicity;  "why  then  should  I  look  for  favours 
at  his  hand  V  And  when  the  governor  offered  to  procure 
a  pension  for  him,  he  answered,  with  all  the  true  instinct 
of  a  martyr,  "  That  he  never  would  consent  to  receive 
again  at  the  hand  of  man  that  which  he  had  abandoned 
in  spirit  as  well  as  in  fact  for  the  love  of  God."  So 
also,  when  a  little  while  afterwards  he  lay  upon  his 
deathbed,  he  set  the  seal  and  crown  upon  a  life  of  self- 
denial  and  devotion  in  these  noble  words,  his  last  and 
only  legacy  to  his  children :  "  I  bequeath  them  nothing, 
and  I  recommend  them  to  no  man's  care ;  it  is  enough 
of  riches,  and  enough  of  honour,  that  they  have  suffered 
for  the  faith  of  Jesus  Christ."  And  in  sentiments  such  as 
these  he  breathed  his  last,  surrounded  by  the  best  and 
noblest  of  whom  the  Manillas  could  boast;  the  go- 
vernor of  the  island,  with  the  chief  officers  of  his  suite, 
bearing  his  body  to  the  gTave  amid  honours  which 
would  have  better  suited  a  monarch  than  a  private 
man,  if  that  man  had  not  been  Justo  Ucondono  banished 
for  the  faith. 

In  the  same  year  (1614)  in  which  this  wholesale 
banishment  took  place,  the  Christians  had  to  mourn  for 
the  death  of  Lewis  Cerquiera,  Bishop  of  Japan.  He  had 
succeeded  to  this  office  on  the  demise  of  Peter  Martinez, 
with  whom  he  came  over,  and  whose  coadjutor  he  had 
been  ;  and  he  is  said  to  have  literally  died  of  a  broken 
heart  for  the  ruin  that  had  fallen  on  the  infant  Church 
committed  to  his  love  and  care.  It  is  true,  indeed, 
that  from  the  first  he  had  undertaken  the  task  in  times 
of  great  difficulty  and  danger;  but  at  the  period  of  his 
arrival,  though  there  was  much  to  discourage,  there  had 
also  been  much  to  strengthen  and  to  cheer  his  heart. 
From  Nangasaki,  where  he  had  fixed  his  residence, 
he  had  succeeded  in  making  innumerable  journeys  to 
the  most  distant  parts  of  the  kingdom ;  and  whither- 
soever he  went,  thousands  had  flocked  around  him  for 


CH.  VIII J  JAPAM.  143 

instruction  and  confirmation.  No  kingdom  or  city  was 
too  distant,  no  road  too  untrodden,  no  mountains  too 
high  or  too  rugged  to  be  accessible  to  his  zeal ;  and 
when  he  returned  from  these  weary  wanderings,  he 
could  sit  down  at  Nangasaki,  and  feel  that  there  at 
least  Almighty  God  had  the  entire  homage  of  all  hearts ; 
for  not  only  was  it  wholly  inhabited  by  Christians,  but 
the  five  parishes  into  which  it  was  divided  were  go- 
verned by  native  pastors,  the  truest  test  of  the  conver- 
sion of  a  people,  and  one  which  only  the  Catholic  Church 
has  ever  succeeded  in  presenting  to  the  world  in  the 
history  of  the  propagation  of  the  Christian  faith. 

Sadly  had  this  lair  scene  changed  within  the  last 
few  years,  and  rapidly  had  all  that  was  brightest  and 
best  disappeared  from  the  picture.  At  the  moment  of 
the  bishop's  death,  the  emperor  had  fulminated  his  final 
edict  against  the  Christians.  Figo,  Amanguchi,  and 
Firando  were  already  dejuged  in  their  blood ;  Nanga- 
saki  was  the  head-quarters  of  Safiori,  their  implacable 
foe,  and  an  army  of  ten  thousand  men  had  been  let. 
loose  upon  Arima,  to  exterminate  religion  by  fire  and 
sword.  Whenever  any  of  these  troops  were  sent  into  a 
district,  a  judgment-seat,  surrounded  by  a  palisade,  was 
set  up  in  the  most  public  place  of  the  city ;  the  best 
known  among  the  Christians  were  then  dragged  by  the 
hair  and  cast  into  the  enclosure,  thrown  upon  the  ground, 
trampled  under-foot,  beaten  until  they  were  half-dead, 
and  their  legs,  by  a  cruel  contrivance,  broken  between 
two  pieces  of  wood;  the  most  intrepid  were  then  put  to 
death,  and  their  bodies,  being  cut  into  pieces,  were  cast 
to  the  birds  of  prey.  At  Cochinotzu  sixty  Christians 
were  taken,  five  and  five  at  a  time,  with  their  hands 
tied  behind  them,  lifted  high  up  into  the  air,  and  then 
dashed  upon  the  ground  with  so  much  violence,  that 
blood  gushed  from  the  ears,  eyes,  and  mouths  of  the 
sufferers.  Many  of  them  were  dreadfully  lacerated, 
others  had  all  their  bones  broken ;  and  as  if  this  were 
not  already  sufficient  torture,  they  were  afterwards 
pricked  and  pierced  with  sharp  instruments  all  over  their 


144  JAPAN. 

bodies.  The  governor  all  the  while  was  exhorting  them 
with  affected  compassion  to  spare  themselves  further 
torments  by  renouncing-  their  religion;  but  when  he 
found  that  they  were  deaf  to  his  entreaties,  he  proceeded 
to  inflict  a  new  punishment,,  so  horrible  that  it  is  diffi- 
cult to  conceive  the  cruelty  of  the  mind  by  which  it  was 
invented.  The  victim  being  made  to  lie  flat  on  the 
ground,  a  stone,  which  four  men  could  scarcely  lift,  was 
placed  on  his  back ;  and  then,  by  means  of  a  pulley, 
with  cords  attached  to  the  legs  and  arms,  he  was  raised 
from  the  earth  in  such  a  manner  that  the  body  was  bent 
completely  backwards,  the  limbs  cruelly  crushed  and 
broken,  and  in  many  instances  the  eyes  forced  out  of 
their  sockets ;  the  fingers  and  toes  of  the  victims  were 
then  cut  off',  the  teeth  knocked  out,  and  if  the  eyesight 
yet  remained,  it  was  now  destroyed.  Many  were  not 
beheaded  until  death  had  indeed  become  a  mercy; 
while  others,  less  fortunate,  after  undergoing  a  yet 
further  mutilation  of  their  persons,  were  compelled  in 
the" midst  of  their  agony  to  climb  up  and  down  a  flight 
of  stairs  for  the  amusement  of  their  tormentors ;  after 
which  they  were  consigned  to  the  care  of  their  friends, 
until  one  by  one,  as  the  strength  of  their  constitutions 
more  or  less  prolonged  the  struggle  of  death,  they 
passed  from  their  painful  martyrdom  to  the  crowns 
prepared  for  them  in  heaven. 

The  bloody  scenes  of  Cochinotzu  were  only  a 
sample  of  those  which  likewise  desolated  Aria,  Obama, 
Simabara,  Swota,  and  every  other  city  of  note  in  the 
kingdom  of  Arima;  but  more  especially  the  capital, 
where  Safiori  presided  in  person  over  the  cruelties  which 
he  had  invented  for  his  victims.  For  a  little  while, 
however,  he  was  interrupted  in  this  pleasant  pastime 
by  the  revolt  of  Fideyori,  the  son  of  the  late  emperor, 
who  had  at  length  resolved  upon  asserting  his  right  to 
the  crown  ;  but  the  subsequent  defeat  and  death  of  that 
unfortunate  prince  putting  an  end  to  the  war,  Safiori  re- 
turned to  Arima,  again  to  attempt  the  eradication  of  a  re- 
ligion which  had  become  thoroughly  fixed  and  rooted  in 


CH.  VIII.]  JAPAN.  145 

the  hearts  of  the  people.  His  success,  however,  not 
keeping'  pace  with  his  zeal,  he  was  finally  disgraced, 
and  his  kingdom  given  to  another.  Meanwhile,  in  the 
second  year  of  the  persecution,  the  Kumhosama  died,  and 
was  succeeded  by  his  son,  under  the  title  of  the  Xoguno, 
who  proved  to  be  a  far  more  dangerous  and  inexora- 
ble foe  than  any  who  had  as  yet  been  opposed  to  the 
Christians.  More  cruel  in  disposition,  more  determined 
and  prompt  in  action,  and  gifted  with  far  more  acute- 
ness  and  penetration,  he  seized  at  once  upon  a  truth 
which  his  father  had  only  recognised  when  dying', 
namely,  that  whatever  number  of  Christians  he  might 
put  to  death,  he  would  never  succeed  in  extirpating 
their  religion  so  long  as  one  Christian  priest  was  left  in 
the  country  to  fortify  the  confessors,  to  animate  the 
martyrs,  and  to  baptise  and  instruct  the  infidels,  whom 
each  fresh  deed  of  heroism,  instead  of  deterring,  gathered 
by  hundreds  into  the  Church.  The  shepherd  must  be 
smitten  if  the  sheep  were  to  be  dispersed ; — such  was  the 
deep  and  deadly  policy  contained  in  the  late  Kumbo's 
deathbed  exhortation;  and  from  that  hour,  though 
merciless  butchery  was  still  the  portion  of  all  the 
Christians,  the  chief  weight  of  the  Xoguno's  arm  fell 
upon  their  pastors.  The  law  by  which  he  proceeded  to 
effect  his  purpose  bore  a  considerable  affinity  to  that 
enforced  in  England  nearly  at  the  same  time,  and  with 
a  similar  intention.  To  prevent  any  further  addition 
from  without  to  the  number  of  the  missionaries  already 
in  the  kingdom,  all  the  ports  of  Japan  were  irrevocably 
closed  against  the  vessels  of  Europe,  with  the  exception 
indeed  of  Nangasaki  and  Eirando,  which  were  always 
under  the  rigid  surveillance  of  the  officers  of  the  Xoguno. 
It  was  also  made  death  to  be  convicted  as  a  priest,  or  to 
be  discovered  in  the  exercise  of  priestly  functions ;  death 
to  introduce  a  priest  into  the  kingdom,  and  death  to 
give  him  shelter;  death  not  only  to  the  person  so  exer- 
cising hospitality,  but  likewise  to  his  ten  next  neighbours, 
with  their  innocent  wives  and  children, — a  reward  being 
generally  offered  for  the  discovery  of  those  who,  in  any 
L 


146  JAPAN. 

of  these  ways,  should  have  incurred  the  penalties  of  the 
law.  From  that  hour  the  life  of  each  individual  priest 
was  at  the  mercy  of  every  one  to  whom  he  had  heen 
previously  known;  while  the  lives  of  those  who  sheltered 
him  were  equally  liable  to  be  forfeit  to  the  curiosity  or 
cupidity  of  such  of  their  neighbours  as  might  chance  to 
discover  the  fact  of  their  delinquency.  Immediately 
upon  the  promulgation  of  this  edict,  many  of  the  mis- 
sionaries, in  order  to  avoid  compromising-  the  safety  of 
their  brethren,  left  the  towns,  and  went  out  to  dwell  in 
the  woods  and  deserts ;  and  in  this  way  one  of  them 
lived  for  twenty  years,  like  a  veritable  St.  John  the 
Baptist,  in  the  wilderness;  while  others  took  up  their 
abode  in  caves,  grottoes,  deserted  stables,  or  cupboards 
and  cells  constructed  for  them  by  the  faithful  in  the 
recesses  of  their  own  houses,  without  other  light  than 
such  as  a  chance  chink  in  the  boards  mig-ht  give,  or 
other  food  save  that  which  at  rare  intervals  could  be 
conveyed  to  them  by  those  to  whose  charity  and  courage 
they  were  indebted  for  their  shelter.  In  these  hiding- 
places  they  were  often  compelled  to  remain  for  several 
weeks  together ;  one  of  them  dwelt  during  the  intensest 
heat  of  summer  no  less  than  sixty  days  in  just  such  a 
cell  as  we  have  described ;  but  at  night  they  used  to 
sally  forth  to  visit  and  instruct  their  Hocks,  to  baptise 
children  and  converts,  to  anoint  the  sick  and  dying, 
and,  in  short,  to  do  as  much  of  their  missionary  duties  as 
their  cramped  and  perilous  circumstances  would  admit  of. 
But  the^  eyes  of  the  whole  nation  were  upon  them  ;  and 
though  care  and  caution  might  avail  them  for  a  time, 
sooner  or  later  the  tyrant  was  certain  of  seizing  on  his 
prey.  To  Father  John  Baptist  Machades,  a  Jesuit,  and 
Father  Peter,  a  Franciscan,  the  honour  was  accorded 
of  taking  the  first  place  on  this  long  list  of  priestly  vic- 
tims. The  former  was  going  to  Omura  by  order  of  his 
superior,  when  he  and  his  catechist  were  made  prisoners 
at  Goto,  and  sent  by  sea  to  the  capital.  Contrary 
winds,  however,  detaining  them  at  Canomi,  the  magis- 
trates of  that  place  received  Father  Machades  on  his 


CH.  VIII.]  JAPAN.  147 

landing-  with  every  mark  of  courtesy  and  kindness.  An 
unrestricted  communication  was  permitted  with  the 
Christians,  who  flocked  to  him  in  crowds *  and  after  the 
due  administration  of  the  Sacraments  he  made  them  a 
most  spirit-stirring*  address,  in  the  course  of  which  he 
told  them,  that  even  so  early  as  seven  years  of  age  he 
had  been  moved  by  some  secret  impulse  to  a  strong* 
desire  of  preaching*  the  Gospel  to  the  Japanese. 

These  duties  having*  been  fulfilled,  the  father  re- 
turned of  his  own  accord  to  his  prison  on  board  the  ship. 
But  so  great  was  the  veneration  inspired  by  his  virtues, 
that  the  very  sailors  refused  to  bind  him  as  he  wished; 
and  thus  unshackled,  and  almost  unwatched,  he  re- 
mained until  he  arrived  at  the  prisons  of  Omura.  There 
he  found  a  Franciscan  father  lying*  under  the  same  sen- 
tence of  death  as  himself;  and  great  was  the  jubilee 
with  which  these  holy  missionaries  greeted  each  other 
in  their  dung-eon,  and  sweet  and  holy  the  conferences 
which  they  often  held  together  upon  the  subject  of  their 
approaching  martyrdom.  And  when  at  length  the  man- 
date came,  and  they  knew  that  they  were  to  die  that 
night,  Father  Peter  told,  in  his  simple-hearted  gladness, 
how  he  had  made  this  the  object  of  all  his  prayers  ever 
since  he  had  entered  the  prison ;  while  in  the  same  spirit 
of  holy  exultation,  Machades  declared  he  had  known 
three  really  happy  days  in  his  life,  that  on  which  he  had 
entered  the  Society,  that  on  which  he  had  put  on  chains 
for  Jesus  Christ,  and  now  this,  incomparably  the  hap- 
piest and  most  glorious  of  all,  on  which  his  name  was 
to  be  inscribed  among  the  martyrs  of  the  Church.  They 
both  declined  the  food  which  the  Prince  of  Omura, 
with  a  touch  of  unwonted  courtesy  towards  Christians, 
sent  them  before  nightfall ;  and  then,  having  previously 
confessed  and  communicated  each  other,  they  set  out 
to  the  place  of  execution, — each  carrying  his  crucifix 
and  exhorting  the  crowd  as  they  went  along,  until  the 
final  moment  came,  when  each  affectionately  embraced 
the  other,  and  then  in  peace  and  joyfulness  submitted 
to   his   sentence.      Theirs  was   the   first  execution  of 


148  JAPAN. 

priests  which  had  taken  place  since  the  days  of  Tei- 
go-Sama ;  and  probably  it  was  this  fact,  coupled  with  the 
long-  train  of  future  evils  which  it  unfolded  to  their 
vision,  that  caused  a  grief  so  overwhelming"  among-  the 
Christians  present  on  the  occasion  as  to  excite  the  pity 
of  the  executioners  themselves,  and  to  induce  them  to 
permit  their  carrying  away  the  bodies  of  the  martyrs 
unmolested. 

About  the  same  time  six  other  religious  commenced 
a  still  longer  captivity  in  the  prisons  of  Omura.  Three 
were  Dominicans,  one  a  Franciscan,  and  the  two  others 
Jesuits,  Father  Charles  Spinola,  and  Ambrose  Fer- 
nandez, a  Brother  of  the  Society.  When  first  they  were 
taken  prisoners  they  had  been  thrown  for  greater  se- 
curity into  a  sort  of  subterranean  cave,  where  they  lay 
huddled  together  and  deprived  of  light ;  nor  was  their 
condition  much  improved  by  their  removal  to  a  prison, 
which,  like  all  similar  buildings  in  Japan,  left  them  ex- 
posed to  the  changes  of  the  weather,  and  in  which,  by 
another  cruel  regulation,  they  were  so  scantily  supplied 
with  food  and  clothing  that  many  of  them  frequently 
fainted  away  from  weakness  and  exhaustion.  Even 
their  jailors  were  sometimes  moved  to  pity,  and  per- 
mitted the  Christians  to  enter  with  food ;  but  this  con- 
nivance being  discovered  by  their  superiors,  they  were 
compelled  to  swear  that  it  should  not  happen  tip-;! in. 
One  of  them,  however,  was  a  Christian;  and  as  lie 
refused  to  swear  by  Xaca  and  Amida,  the  unlawful 
oaths  administered  to  his  companions,  he  met  with  a 
martyr's  fate  on  the  following  morning.  Thus  effect- 
ually deprived  of  every  succour  from  without,  the  pri- 
soners nevertheless  contrived  to  lead  a  life  of  angelic 
happiness  within  the  walls  of  their  dreary  prison.  Every 
day  the  Holy  Sacrifice  of  the  Mass,  meditation,  and 
pious  reading,  succeeded  each  other  with  as  much  regu- 
larity as  if  they  had  been  still  in  the  cloistered  security 
of  a  religious  house  ;  nor  were  their  voluntary  austerities 
suspended,  because  mingled  of  necessity  with  all  the  in- 
voluntary hardships  of  a  convict's  life.     The  discipline 


CH.  VIII.]  JAPAN.  149 

was  in  frequent  use  among'  them,  and  even  their  scanty 
food  was  considerably  retrenched  by  their  frequent  fast- 
ings •  while  during-  the  four  years  he  remained  a  cap- 
tive, Father  Spinola  always  wore  a  hair  shirt,  which  he 
never  could  be  prevailed  upon  to  lay  aside,  even  during" 
the  many  and  severe  illnesses  consequent  upon  the  pri- 
vations of  his  prison.  All  his  religious  life,  indeed,  had 
been  marked  by  the  same  persevering*  practice  of  per- 
sonal austerity.  During  his  long  residence  in  Japan 
he  had  lived  entirely  upon  rice  and  ill-boiled  herbs,  nor 
had  he  ever  allowed  himself  the  use  of  fruit ;  although 
in  the  summer-season  of  that  eastern  climate  it  is  not 
only  one  of  the  greatest  of  luxuries,  but  almost  one  of 
the  necessaries  of  life.  From  his  childhood  also  he  had 
dreamed  of  martyrdom  as  other  children  dream  of 
pleasures  and  of  toys :  it  was  this  which  drew  him  to 
Japan  as  soon  as  he  had  finished  his  studies  for  the 
priesthood ;  it  was  this  which  made  him,  however  in- 
dulgent and  considerate  for  others,  so  uniformly  severe 
to  himself-  and  it  was  this  which,  on  his  first  entrance 
into  the  prisons  of  Omura,  forced  him  to  exclaim,  in  all 
the  overflowing-  fervour  of  his  spirit,  "  Behold  the  place 
of  my  rest :  here  will  I  abide,  because  I  have  chosen 
it."   " 

It  was  not  until  the  close  of  the  year  1622,  that  an 
order  arrived  for  the  removal  of  these  religious  and 
other  Christian  prisoners  to  Nangasaki,  and  for  their 
subsequent  execution.  They  were  thirty  in  number 
as  they  marched  out  of  Omura  •  and,  partly  by  sea  and 
partly  by  land,  each  with  a  rope  round  his  neck,*  and 

*  The  binding  of  a  Japanese  prisoner  is  by  no  means  a  simple 
or  painless  affair.  Cords  of  about  the  thickness  of  a  finger  are  used 
in  the  first  instance,  and  these  are  overlaid  by  others  much 
smaller,  and,  of  course,  more  painful.  They  are  fastened  by  a 
regulated  number  of  knots  and  nooses  round  the  breast,  neck,  and 
arms ;  the  hands  are  bound  together,  the  elbows  nearly  touch  each 
other,  and  all  the  ends  of  these  various  ties  are  united  to  one  long 
cord  held  by  the  executioner.  The  slightest  effort  to  escape  thus 
brings  the  elbows  completely  into  contact ;  and  tightening  the 
uoose  round  the  neck  of  the  unhappy  prisoner  almost  to  strangula- 
tion, effectually  prevents  him  from  accomplishing  his  object. 


150  JAPAN. 

an  executioner  at  his  side,  the}7  went  on  their  way  to 
the  old  city  of  the  Christians.  It  was  not  considered 
prudent  that  they  should  enter  Nangasaki,  so  the 
inhabitants  went  forth  in  multitudes  to  meet  them,  and 
flinging-  themselves  at  their  i'eet,  begged  with  many  teara 
their  blessings  and  their  prayers;  and  thus"  escorted, 
the  martyrs  stood  at  length  upon  that  high  hill  be- 
tween the  city  and  the  sea,  where  just  twenty-six  years 
before  the  martyrs  of  Teigo-Sama  had  accomplished 
their  doom.  A  moment  of  suspense  followed.  Some 
victim  or  spectator  was  yet  wanting  to  the  solemnity;  and 
every  eye  was  directed  towards  the  town,  from  whence 
a  troop  of  persons  might  be  descried  approaching, — 
men,  women,  and  children ;  thirty  of  the  former,  with, 
of  course,  a  far  larg'er  proportion  of  the  latter.  Eyery 
doubt  as  to  the  ultimate  destination  of  this  company 
soon  vanished,  when  it  was  seen  that  they  were  dressed 
in  their  robes  of  ceremony,  and  with  looks  of  glad- 
ness and  of  holy  joy  were  ascending  to  the  calvary  of 
the  Christians.  One  of  the  new-comers  had  been  guilty 
of  giving  shelter  to  a  missionary ;  the  others  were  his 
ten  next  neighbours,  with  their  families,  besides  the 
wives  and  children  of  some  previous  martyrs ;  and  of 
this  almost  incredible  number  of  victims,  amounting  to 
upwards  of  a  hundred,  some  were  to  be  beheaded,  while 
others  were  to  perish  by  the  slower  martyrdom  of  fire. 
A  throne  had  been  erected  overlooking  this  scene  of 
slaughter ;  and  when  the  governor  had  taken  his  seat 
upon  it,  those  who  were  to  undergo  the  sentence  of  fire 
were  fastened  to  their  stakes,  but  loosely,  in  order 
that  they  might  escape  if  only  they  chose  to  apos- 
tatise, and  then  the  executioners  prepared  to  decapitate 
the  others.  Among  these  last  was  Isabella,  the  widow 
of  the  man  in  whose  house  Father  Spinola  had  been 
taken  captive,  and  her  son  Ignatius,  a  child  now  about 
four  years  old,  but  at  that  time  a  new-born  infant, 
whom  he  had  baptised  on  the  very  evening  before  his 
arrest.  From  the  stake  to  which  he  was  already 
bound,  the  father  had  been  exhorting  both  natives  and 


CH.  VIlI.j  JAPAN.  151 

Portuguese  to  perseverance,  telling-  them,  almost  in  a 
spirit  of  prophecy,  that  they  need  not  look  for  any  ces- 
sation in  the  persecution,  which  would  go  on  increasing 
in  fury  from  day  to  day ;  when  chancing  to  see  Isahella 
standing-  in  the  crowd,  and  anxious  for  the  fate  of  her 
child,  he  suddenly  cried  out,  "  Where  then  is  my  little 
Ignatius  ?"  The  mother  held  him  up,  exclaiming, 
"  Here  he  is,  my  father,  ready  and  glad  to  die  for 
Jesus;"  and  then  addressing  the  infant,  she  bade  him 
ask  the  blessing  of  the  good  father,  who  in  the  waters 
of  baptism  had  conferred  upon  him  a  spiritual  life  in- 
finitely more  precious  than  that  which  he  was  now 
about  to  forfeit  for  his  God.  Instantly  the  little  crea- 
ture fell  upon  his  knees,  joining  his  tiny  hands  together, 
as  if  he  would  supplicate  the  blessing  of  the  father. 
So  touching  in  its  simplicity  was  this  little  scene,  that 
the  crowd,  already  interested  by  the  movement  of  the 
mother,  now  broke  into  such  open  murmurs  of  compas- 
sion, that  they  were  obliged  to  proceed  at  once  to  the 
execution,  in  order  to  prevent  the  possibility  of  any 
attempt  at  a  rescue.  Two  or  three  heads  had  already 
fallen  close  by  the  child's  side,  and  now  his  mother's  fol- 
lowed ;  yet  it  was  observed  that  he  neither  shrank  nor 
changed  colour,  but  his  turn  being  next,  he  fell  upon  his 
knees,  loosened  (for  there  was  no  one  to  do  the  office 
for  him)  with  his  infant  but  untrembling  fingers  the 
collar  that  would  have  impeded  the  aim  of  the  exe- 
cutioner, and  without  a  cry  or  murmur  submitted  to 
the  sword. 

The  remaining  victims  were  speedily  despatched; 
and  their  heads  having  been  placed  opposite  to  such  of 
their  companions  as  were  to  die  at  the  stakes,  fire  was 
set  to  the  piles  of  wood  by  which  the  latter  were  sur- 
rounded. With  the  usual  diabolical  ingenuity  of  the 
Japanese  pagans,  the  faggots  had  been  placed  full  five- 
and-twenty  feet  from  the  stakes ;  and  whenever  the  fire 
was  seen  to  gain  too  fast  upon  its  victims,  water  was  cast 
upon  it,  that  inch  by  inch  they  might  taste  the  full 
agony  of  the  sentence  to  which  they  had   been  con- 


152  JAPAN. 

demned.  Many  of  them  died  from  the  mere  effects  of 
the  heated  atmosphere; — among  others,  Father  Rimura, 
a  Japanese  priest,  after  having-  lived  for  full  three  hours 
in  the  midst  of  the  flames ;  and  Father  Spinola  also, 
whose  body  was  afterwards  found  unhurnt,  and  wrapped 
in  his  soutane,  which  was  literally  glued  to  the  flesh  by 
the  combined  action  of  the  heat  and  of  the  water  which 
had  been  cast  upon  his  person. 

Terrible  beyond  expression  as  their  sufferings  must 
have  been,  two  only  of  this  heroic  company  showed 
the  slightest  symptoms  of  being  even  conscious  of 
its  anguish.  Both  were  Japanese,  and  very  young; 
and  both  simultaneously,  and  as  if  from  an  absolute 
physical  inability  to  endure  such  frightful  torture 
any  longer,  rushed  out  of  the  flames,  and  threw  them- 
selves at  the  feet  of  the  governor,  imploring  his  mercy. 
They  did  not,  however,  ask  for  life ;  they  asked  only 
for  an  easier  and  quicker  death.  But,  poor  as  the 
boon  was,  it  was  denied  them,  save  upon  the  condition 
of  apostasy,  which  they  would  not  accept ;  and  again 
they  were  flung  back  into  the  flames. 

This  martyrdom,  which  was  distinguished  among 
the  Japanese  as  the  "  Great  Martyrdom,"  on  account 
both  of  the  rank  and  number  of  its  victims,  had  been 
preceded  by  another  at  Miako,  which  took  place  under 
circumstances  of  peculiar  barbarity.  One  of  the  victims 
was  in  daily  expectation  of  giving  birth  to  a  child; 
nevertheless  she  was  included  in  the  sentence  which 
sent  her  husband,  a  nobleman  of  the  highest  rank,  and 
their  six  young  children,  with  upwards  of  forty  other 
Christians,  to  the  stake. 

The  tragical  situation  in  which  she  was  placed  had, 
however,  no  terrors  for  this  heroic  woman.  She  em- 
ployed her  prison-hours  in  preparing  robes  for  herself 
and  her  children  to  wear  at  their  execution;  and  when 
she  was  brought  to  the  destined  place,  calmly,  and 
without  assistance,  she  stepped  from  the  cart,  and,  throw- 
ing a  rich  mantle  over  her  shoulders,  prepared  to  suffer 
with  a  modesty  and  composure  that  won  her  the  ad- 


CII.  VIII.]  JAPAN.  153 

miration  of  all  beholders.  It  was  dark  night  before 
fire  was  set  to  their  several  piles ;  but  as  soon  as  the 
smoke  had  cleared  away,  the  martyrs  were  seen  by  the 
light  of  the  bright  flames  amid  which  they  stood,  with 
eyes  fixed  on  heaven  and  forms  motionless  and  erect, 
as  though  they  had  been  figures  chiselled  out  of  stone. 

In  very  horror  the  spectators  were  silent,  and  the 
stillness  and  hush  of  death  was  upon  the  midnight  air, 
when  suddenly  from  out  of  that  fiery  furnace  a  flood 
of  melody  was  poured, — men  and  Avomen  and  children 
singing  the  praises  of  the  living  God  as  sweetly,  and 
with  notes  as  true,  as  though  the  red  and  thirsty  flames 
had  been  but  the  dews  of  heaven  upon  their  brows. 
The  sighs  and  prayers  of  the  assistants,  which  could  no 
longer  be  repressed,  the  shouts  and  execrations  of  the 
soldiers  and  executioners  soon  mingled  with  this  death- 
song  ;  and  these,  and  the  dark  night,  and  the  fierce  fire 
that  illuminated  its  gloom,  now  flashing  intolerable 
light  upon  the  victims,  now  glancing  lividly  on  the  pale 
faces  and  shrinking  forms  of  the  densely-packed  spec- 
tators, altogether  formed  a  union  of  sights  and  sounds 
that  alternately  swayed  the  feelings  to  terror  and  com- 
passion. But  tlie  music  of  that  marvellous  choir  died 
gradually  away;  and  the  sudden  failing  of  each  glad- 
some voice,  the  silent  sinking  of  each  upright  form, 
telling  that  another  and  yet  another  had  yielded  to 
their  doom,  was  marked  by  the  watchers  with  redoubled 
lamentations ;  though  their  tenderest  sympathies  were 
still  reserved  for  the  mother  dying  in  the  midst  of  her 
little  ones. 

From  the  cross  to  which  they  had  bound  her, 
Thecla  (for  such  was  her  name)  still  kept  her  eyes 
fixed  upon  her  children,  animating  them  by  gentle 
smiles  and  words  of  comfort  to  suffer  well ;  while  the 
youngest,  an  infant  only  three  years  old,  she  held  with 
almost  superhuman  courage  in  her  arms  during  the 
whole  of  the  terrible  scene  that  followed.  Her  own 
anguish  had  no  power  to  extort  a  single  sigh  from  hur 
lips  ;  but  those  who  watched  her  wept  to  see  the  use- 


154  JAPAN. 

less  efforts  which  she  made  to  diminish  the  sufferings 
of  her  babe.  She  caressed  it,  soothed  it,  hushed  its 
cries,  wiped  away  its  tears,  sought  with  ber  own  hands 
to  shelter  its  tender  face  from  the  terrible  contact  of 
the  fire,  and  died  at  last  with  the  little  victim  so  closely 
folded  to  her  bosom,  that  it  was  almost  impossible  to 
separate  the  mother  and  the  child. 

These  martyrdoms  are  only  specimens  of  those 
which  during-  this  period  continually  took  place  in 
Japan.  Some  Christians  were  crucified,  others  burnt, 
others  beheaded;  numbers  again  branded  upon  the  cheeks 
and  forehead  with  the  sign  of  the  cross,  their  fingers 
and  toes  cut  off,  and  their  eyes  forced  out ;  and  thus 
maimed  and  helpless,  they  were  sent  back  to  their  fa- 
milies, who  (to  their  honour  be  it  written)  never  failed 
to  receive  them  with  all  the  more  pride  and  affection, 
the  more  deeply  and  hideously  they  had  been  disfiguftjtf 
for  the  sake  of  Jesus. 


CH.  IX.]  JAPAN.  155 


CHAPTER  IX. 

Sufferings  of  the  clergy.  Diminution  of  their  number,  and  con- 
sequently of  the  Christians  generally.  Martyrdom,  of  Fathers 
Paul,  Angelis,  and  others ;  some  at  the  stake,  others  in  freezing 
water,  and  others  by  unheard-of  tortures.  The  sulphurous 
•waters  of  Ungen.  Death  of  the  Xoguno.  He  is  succeeded  by  a 
still  more  cruel  tyrant.  Treachery  of  the  Dutch.  Portuguese 
merchants  forbidden  to  land :  murder  of  Portuguese  ambas- 
sadors. Last  efforts  of  Jesuit  missionaries,  who  are  all  martyred. 
Final  extinction  of  Christianity.     Present  state  of  Japan. 

The  law  which  the  Xoguno  bad  introduced  against  the 
Christian  priesthood,  soon  began  to  tell  rapidly  and  with 
fatal  effect  upon  their  numbers,  and  of  course  upon  the 
prosperity  of  the  Church  committed  to  their  keeping-. 
So  long'  as  there  were  left  missionaries  enough  to  aid 
them,  neither  lire  nor  sword  had  prevented  the  progress 
of  religion  among  the  infidels ;  and  even  in  the  first 
three  years  of  the  persecution,  when  the  panic  might  be 
supposed  to  be  at  its  height,  it  has  been  calculated  that 
no  less  than  15.000  persons  were  received  into  the  bosom 
of  the  Church ;  but  now,  thinned  by  persecution  from 
within,  and  prevented  by  the  rigid  enforcement  of  the 
recent  regulations  from  all  recruiting  from  without,  each 
new  casualty  among  the  fathers  left  a  larger  field  with 
less  assistance  to  the  labours  of  the  survivors :  whole 
kingdoms  came  at  length  to  be  confided  to  the  care  of 
a  single  man  ;  and  in  pursuance  of  such  widely-extended 
duties,  the  missionary  had  to  travel  unceasingly  from 
city  to  city,  and  from  province  to  province, — his  journeys 
rendered  doubly  tedious  by  the  necessity  of  being  per- 
formed at  night,  while  in  the  daytime  he  was  forced  to 
conceal  himself  in  hiding-places  so  cramped  and  miser- 
able as  rather  to  exhaust  than  to  recruit  the  strength. 
Those  more  especially  who  were  devoted  to  the  task  of 
instructing  the  exiled  Christiana  underwent  almost  in- 


106  JAPAN. 

credible  hardships  ;  for  they  had  continually  to  travel 
over  rugged  rocky  mountains,  through  pathless  forests 
and  deep  valleys,  filled  in  the  winter-time  with  snow,  in 
order  to  reach  the  objects  of  their  charitable  zeal,  who, 
"ed  from  the  rest  of  the  empire  by  a  long  chain 
of  nearly  inaccessible  mountains,  dwelt  amid  the  silent 
snows  and  treeless  deserts  of  a  distant  and  inclement 
province,  literally  the  Siberia  of  Japan ;  or,  still  less 
happy,  were  distributed  as  common  slaves,  to  labour  in 
the  mine.-  with  which  that  part  of  the  country  abounded. 
Stricken  down  by  the  pressure  of  such  work  as  this, 
many  a  man  with  apparently  years  of  strength  and  la- 
bour in  his  yet  unexhausted  frame  became  suddenly 
old  before  his  time,  and  decrepit  and  useless  on  the 
mission.  Sickness  and  death  in  some  cases  supervened; 
and  aided  by  such  casualties  as  these,  the  Xoguno  had 
less  difficulty  than  might  have  been  expected  in  carry- 
ing out  his  favourite  scheme  for  the  extirpation  of  the 
priesthood.  He  likewise  received  considerable  assist- 
ance from  the  Dutch,  who,  unprincipled  and  treacherous 
as  ever,  continued  to  play  their  accustomed  part,  and 
to  sacrifice  to  their  unhallowed  love  of  gain  the  lives  not 
only  of  the  missionaries  themselves,  but  those  of  the 
sailors  who  brought  them  over,  and  of  the  suffering 
Christians  for  whose  consolation  they  had  come.  A 
Japanese  convert  of  the  name  of  Joachim  had  received 
two  missionaries  in  the  guise  of  merchants  on  board  his 
junk;  but  the  Dutch,  suspecting  the  real  nature  of  their 
profession,  seized  upon  the  vessel,  and  delivered  her  and 
her  crew  to  the  proper  authorities  at  Firando,  declaring 
at  the  same  time  their  suspicions  as  to  the  concealment 
of  a  priest  among  the  passengers.  This  event  occurred 
some  short  time  before  the  execution  of  Father  Spinola 
and  his  companions,  and  they  were  brought  from  their 
dungeon  to  be  confronted  with  the  suspected  religious. 
The  condition  to  which  this  venerable  company  of  con- 
fessors were  by  this  time  reduced  excited  compassion 
even  in  the  minds  of  the  men  who  w 
place  others  in  a  similar  position. 


CH.  IX.J  JAPAN.  157 

Father  Spinola  was  already  known  to  the  Dutchmen 
as  the  scion  of  one  of  the  noblest  families  in  the  German 
empire.  The  blood  of  a  long-  line  of  heroes  flowed  in  his 
veins :  his  father  had  not  only  been  a  favoured  friend 
of  the  Emperor  Rodolph  II.,  but  had  also  held  one  of 
the  highest  offices  about  his  person  ;  and  they  could  not, 
without  some  natural  touch  of  pity,  see  such  a  man  in  the 
position  of  a  common  criminal,  manacles  on  his  hands, 
the  bones  protruding1  from  his  discoloured  skin,  his  robe, 
a  soutane,  tattered  and  unwashed,  and  himself  living-  in 
a  den  where  they  would  never  have  dreamed  of  even 
stabling-  their  horses.  Such  at  least  is  the  account 
which  they  themselves  have  left  us  of  their  own  feel- 
ings. Yet  faint  and  fleeting-  must  have  been  this  passing- 
emotion  of  compassion,  since  it  does  not  appear  to  have 
had  an}'  effect  on  their  conduct ;  for  even  during-  the 
present  trial,  they  were  so  bent  on  retaining-  at  all 
hazards  the  favour  of  the  Xogamo,  that  on  the  recap- 
ture of  one  of  the  prisoners  who  had  contrived  to  escape, 
the}'  actually  g-ave  expression  to  their  joy  by  a  discharge 
of  artillery.  In  the  end  both  the  fathers  whom  they 
had  discovered  declared  their  priesthood  ;  but  this  con- 
fession did  not  prevent  the  execution  of  their  companions. 
The  relig-ious  were  burnt,  the  crew  to  a  man  decapitated 
at  Nangasaki,  and  Father  Spinola  and  his  companions 
remanded  to  their  dungeon,  which  they  never  ag-ain  left 
until  they  were  led  to  execution.  Their  martyrdom, 
as  already  stated,  took  place  on  the  10th  of  Septem- 
ber. On  the  12th,  rive  more  relig'ious  were  burnt  at  the 
stake;  on  the  15th their  catechists  followed  in  the  -.hup 
path ;  and  on  the  1st  of  November  Father  Paul  Peter 
Navarre,  with  two  other  missionaries,  encountered  a 
similar  fate.  He  had  been  recognised  some  months  be- 
fore by  a  heathen  soldier,  who  broug-ht  him  prisoner  to 
Sima-bara  ;  but  instead  of  being-  consig-ned  to  the  com- 
mon g-aol,  as  so  many  of  the  religious  had  been,  he  was 
confided  to  the  care  of  nine  Christians,  whose  lives 
would  have  been  forfeit  in  the  event  of  his  escape. 
Every  liberty  at  all  consistent  with  a  state  of  durance 


158  JAPAN. 

was  permitted  him ;  he  was  allowed  to  celebrate  Mass 
every  day,  to  communicate  freely  both  with  he: 
and  Christians,  and  to  preach  and  administer  the  •■ 
merits  without  restriction.  The  governor,  to  whose 
humane  interference  he  was  indebted  for  such  favours, 
was  himself  very  desirous  of  an  interview  with  the  father, 
and  sent  him  a  present  of  some  fruit,  accompanied  with 
many  civil  reg-rets  for  his  detention,  as  well  as  w 
intimation  that  he  would  willingly  have  overlooked  his 
presence  in  the  country  (as  he  had  already  done  tint  of 
many  others  of  his  brethren),  had  it  been  possible  to  do 
so  with  any  chance  of  safety  to  himself.  After  these 
preliminaries  he  sent  for  Father  Paul  to  his  house, 
where,  in  the  course  of  a  long  and  interesting-  conversa- 
tion, he  chanced  to  touch  upon  the  much  vexed  question 
of  free  will,  asking-,  as  the  Japanese  heathens  were  con- 
stantly in  the  habit  of  doing-,  "  Why,  if  God  created  all, 
He  should  permit  any  to  be  lost  C  The  father  answered, 
that  "God  indeed  had  made  all  men  to  be  happy  by 
means  of  holiness,  but  He  would  not  compel  them  ;  for 
then  their  service  would  but  have  been  that  of  slaves, 
and  He  would  have  been  deprived  of  their  more  honour- 
able homage  as  free  men.  He  had  given  them  all  ne- 
cessary means  for  working1  out  their  salvation  ;  and  even 
by  human  institutions  they  would  stand  condemned  if 
t  ley  abused  such  gifts.  For,  sir,"  he  added,  more 
directly  addressing  the  g*overnor,  '"do  not  you  yourself 
discriminate  between  the  rebel  and  the  true  man;  and 
while  you  think  it  just  to  punish  the  former,  do  you  not 
til  o  consider  it  as  only  fair  to  reserve  all  your  rewards 
and  favours  for  the  latter?"  The  governor  acknow- 
ledged lie  was  right,  requested  a  copy  of  the  apology 
which  the  father  had  composed  on  tl.e  part  of  the 
Christians,  and  then  reluctantly  bade  him  adieu,  declar- 
ing his  belief  "that  there  was  neither  happiness  nor 
salvation  out  of  the  pale  of  the  Catholic  Church." 

Father  Paul  hoped  much  from  this  interview  for  the 
conversion  of  the  governor;  but  he  never  deceived  him- 
self for  a  moment  as  to  the  ultimate  result  of  his  own 


CH.  IX.]  JAPAN.  lol) 

imprisonment ;  and  by  the  patli  of  voluntary  suffering, 

by  tasting,  hair  shirt,  and  discipline,  he  endeavoured  to 
fit  himself  for  the  steady  endurance  of  any  torture  which 
might  be  his  portion  in  the  hour  of  trial.  Before  that 
hour  came,  however,  he  had  many  tedious  months  to 
linger  as  a.  captive;  hut  at  length  his  sentence  was  pro- 
nounced, and  he  listened  to  it  with  a  smiling  countenance, 
observing,  that  "  he  was  only  too  happy  in  being  allowed 
to  attest  with  his  blood  the  truth  of  that  faith  which  for 
six-and-thirty  years  he  had  been  preaching  to  the  Ja- 
panese ;"  adding,  "  that  he  had  no  reason  to  complain  of 
the  Xoguno,  and  still  less  of  his  kind  friend  and  bene- 
factor the  Governor  of  Sima-bara."  It  is  said,  that  the 
latter  could  not  refrain  from  tears  when  these  woids 
were  reported  to  him  ;  but  he  had  no  power  either  to 
hinder  or  retard  the  sentence,  and  on  the  l^t  of  Novem- 
ber, alter  having-  said  his  last  Mass,  weeping  all  the 
time  for  very  joy,  Father  Paid  was  led  to  execution 
barefoot,  his  hands  tied  behind  him,  and  accompanied 
by  the  destined  companions  of  his  martyrdom,  namely, 
two  Jesuit  fathers,  and  a  boy  called  Clement,  who  had 
hitherto  acted  as  his  catechist,  and  who  now  walked 
before  him  singing  the  litanies,  with  a  countenai.ee  so 
angelic  and  serene,  that  the  very  heathens  marvelled  to 
behold  him.  They  di<  d  at  the  ^take  with  the  same 
constancy  winch  both  by  woid  and  look  they  had  ex- 
hibited from  the  beginning;  and  in  'he  following  \  ear 
Father  Angelis,  a  Jesuit  also,  with  fifty  Christians, 
some  of  whom  were  clergy,  underwent  a  similar  sen* 
tence.  He  might  Lave  escaped  it  he  had  el  osen  to  do 
so,  for  he  was  absent  when  they  can  e  to  seek  him  at 
his  lodgings;  but  understanding  that  tie  safety  oi  i.is 
host  was  compromised  by  hi- non-appearance,  he  volun- 
tarily surrendered  to  the  officers  of  the  Xoguno, —  a 
measure  which  unfortunately  ensured  Lis  own  destruc- 
tion without  saving  the  life  of  Lis  friend,  who  was  con- 
demned to  sutler  at  the  same  time  with  himself. 

The  sentence  was  carried   into  execution  at  Jedo ; 
the  lather,  with  his  clerical  companions,  and  Faramon,  a 


160  JAPAN. 

Japanese  nobleman,  who  had  already  lost  all  his  fingers 
and  toes  and  been  branded  in  the  lace  for  the  name  of 
Jesus,  being-  conducted  to  the  stake  on  horseback,  while 
the  other  Christians  walked ;  the  latter  were  like- 
wise executed  first,  either  for  the  purpose  of  aggravat- 
ing the  sufferings,  or  of  shaking*  the  constancy  of  the 
principal  victims.  If  the  latter  were  the  object,  the 
attempt  failed  most  signally ;  for  when  their  hour  of  trial 
came,  they  stood  in  the  midst  of  the  flames  with  as 
much  composure  as  if  they  had  been  breathing'  a  tem- 
perate atmosphere.  The  execution  of  Faramon  made  a 
deep  impression  throughout  the  country,  on  account  both 
of  his  exalted  station  and  of  his  previous  suffering's  in 
the  cause  of  religion.  Before  they  bound  him  to  the 
stake,  he  made  a  short  address  to  the  spectators,  ap- 
pealing* for  the  truth  and  earnestness  of  his  convictions 
to  his  loss,  of  fortune  and  of  courtly  favour,  his  banish- 
ment of  fourteen  years,  and  his  bodily  mutilation.  He 
added  that  he  had  not  embraced  the  religion  which 
had  cost  him  so  dear,  without  having*  both  thoroughly 
sifted  its  doctrines  and  convinced  himself,  by  careful 
examination,  of  the  falsity  of  those  which  were  taught 
by  the  bonzes. 

The  great  majority  of  the  martyrdoms  hitherto  re- 
corded had  been  accomplished  by  fire ;  but  now  a  diffe- 
rent mode  of  torture  was  to  be  pressed  into  the  service. 
Water  was  called  into  requisition ;  and  Father  James 
Caravail,  with  several  lay  Christians,  was  the  leader  of 
many  heroic  confessors  who  perished  from  cold.  They 
were  left,  in  the  first  instance,  for  three  hours  in  freez- 
ing* water,  during*  which  time  one  of  them  died  ;  the 
rest  being*  carried  back  to  prison  and  threatened  with 
the  martyrdom  of  fire  in  case  of  perseverance,  cried  out 
with  one  voice :  "  Oh,  happy  we,  to  pass  through  lire 
and  water  to  the  place  of  our  repose  !"  Instead  of  the 
stake,  however,  the  next  day  they  were  again  placed 
up  to  their  necks  in  water ;  while,  the  better  to  tempt 
them  to  apostasy,  tents,  warm  baths,  and  comfortable 
clothing  were  made  ready  on  the  banks  of  the  pool, 


CH.  IX.]  JAPAN,  161 

and  as  near  as  possible  to  the  spot  where  their  sentence 
was  to  be  earned  into  execution.  As  the  clay  advanced, 
the  water  froze  more  and  more ;  and  heavy  drifts  of 
snow  beating-  continually  upon  them,  added  greatly  to 
their  agony.  Scarcely  able  to  endure  it  any  longer, 
one  among-  them  sobbed  heavily  for  breath  :  but  Father 
Paul  hearing-  it,  cried  out,  "  Have  patience,  son  ■  for  yet 
a  little  while,  and  these  torments  will  be  changed  into 
everlasting-  repose/'  At  the  sound  of  the  fathers  voice, 
and  his  cheering- words,  the  poor  victim  regained  his  cou- 
rage, and  soon  afterwards  happily  expired,  at  the  very 
moment  when  another,  reduced  to  a  similar  extremity, 
exclaimed,  "  Father,  my  course  is  nearly  finished." 
"Depart,  then,"  replied  the  latter;  "'depart  in  peace 
to  God,  and  die  in  His  holy  grace."  Thus  one  by 
one  they  perished  in  this  icy  grave;  and  at  length  the 
father,  who  through  the  live-long-  day  had  cheered  his 
fellow-martyrs  to  the  combat,  was  left  to  suffer  and  to 
die  alone.  Night  had  already  closed-in  heavy  and  chill 
around  him ;  and  with  the  exception  of  his  guards  and 
some  i'e'w  faithful  Christians,  none  were  there  to  watch 
him,  for  the  spectators  had  all  retired  to  their  comfort- 
able homes,  and  it  was  not  until  just  midnight  that, 
after  fifteen  hours  of  stern  endurance,  he  bowed  himself 
down  to  the  frozen  wave,  and  placidly  expired.  This 
martyrdom  took  place  in  the  year  10*24,  and  shortly 
afterwards  four  more  religious  were  burnt  at  Faco;  in 
June  of  the  same  year  the  provincial  of  the  Jesuits,  with 
eight  of  the  Society,  perished  in  a  similar  manner:  and 
in  the  following-  month  Lewis  Xanch,  a  Dominican,  was 
put  to  death  at  Omura. 

We  have  mentioned  these  executions  of  priests  with- 
out alluding-  to  the  almost  weekly  massacres  which  took 
place  among-  the  lay  converts,  merely  to  show  the  viru- 
lence and  success  with  which  the  missionaries  were  now 
every  where  pursued  :  and  when  it  is  remembered  that 
at  the  commencement  of  the  persecution  there  were, 
besides  the  Jesuits,  but  a  few  secular  priests  and  about 
30  religious   of  other  orders,  in  Japan,  and   that  no 

M 


162  JAPAN. 

reinforcement  had  succeeded  in  reaching  them  from 
without,  words  will  not  he  needed  to  point  out  the 
deadly  nature  of  the  blow  which  the  Xoguno  was  at 
last  inflicting-  on  the  Church.  Having-  said  thus  much, 
however,  upon  the  fate  of  the  religious,  it  would  be  a 
crying- injustice  to  the  rest  of  the  Christians  to  pass  over 
their  sufferings  altogether  in  silence. 

The  Xoguno  having-  once  explicitly  declared  him- 
self opposed  to  their  religion,  the  inferior  monarchs,  as 
a  matter  of  course,  vied  with  each  other  in  their  efforts 
to  uproot  it.  It  was  only  on  an  express  condition  to 
that  effect  that  Bugendono,  the  new  governor  of  Nan- 
gasaki,  had  been  installed  in  that  office;  and  taunted  con- 
tinually by  his  rivals  for  courtly  favour  with  his  little 
success,  he  employed  himself  day  and  night  in  the  in- 
vention of  more  ingenious  barbarities  to  effect  his  pur- 
pose. The  object  being-  rather  to  produce  apostasy 
than  death,  every  species  of  torture  was  made  as  slow 
as  possible  in  its  execution,  and  w-.is  generally  eked  out 
with  intervals  of  rest  and  refreshment — a  thousand  times 
more  dangerous  to  the  perseverance  of  the  victim  than 
the  sharpest  continued  agony.  Some  were  placed  in 
deep  pits,  and  there  nearly  buried  alive;  while  execu- 
tioners appointed  for  the  purpose,  slowly,  and  with  blunt 
weapons,  sawed  off  sometimes  the  arms  and  sometimes 
the  head,  salt  being-  thrown  on  the  bleeding  wound  to 
sharpen  its  anguish;  physicians  were  also  at  hand, 
whose  business  it  was  to  prolong-  the  life  of  the  sufferer 
for  as  many  days  as  possible,  by  carefully  ascertaining 
the  amount  of  his  physical  strength,  and  administering 
cordials  when  it  was  beginning  to  fail.  Others  were  hung' 
with  their  head  downwards  in  a  pit,  where,  with  the 
necessary  precaution  of  occasional  bleeding-,  they  were 
made  to  exist  for  a  considerable  time  in  all  the  suffer- 
ings of  an  apoplexy;  while  others  again,  by  menus  of 
a  funnel  forced  far  down  into  their  throats,  were  com- 
pelled to  swallow  enormous  rpiantities  of  water,  which 
was  afterwards  forced  out  of  the  body  by  violent  pres- 
sure.    Even  the  Dutch,  themselves  more  than  half  the 


CH.  IX.]  JAPAN.  1C3 

authors  of  these  evils,  speak  with  horror  of  the  deeds 
which  they  witnessed  at  Firando.  The  nails  of  the 
victims  were  violently  wrenched  off,  holes  bored  into 
their  leg's  and  arms,  great  morsels  of  flesh  torn  out  of 
their  persons  by  the  insertion  of  hollow  reeds  which 
were  turned  round  like  a  screw,  burning-  brimstone 
and  sulphur  forced  by  long-  tubes  up  their  noses ;  and 
they  were,  besides,  frequently  compelled  to  walk  about 
with  executioners  holding*  lighted  torches  close  to  their 
persons.  Nor  were  these  cruelties  inflicted  singly,  or 
upon  solitary  and  more  noted  delinquents.  By  tens, 
by  fifties,  by  hundreds  at  a  time,  they  were  assembled 
for  their  trial ;  one  torture  rapidly  succeeding  another, 
and  each  new  one  being-  so  cunningly  contrived,  that 
the  slightest  word  of  complaint,  the  most  trivial  move- 
ment of  resistance  when  pain  had  become  almost  in- 
tolerable, was  to  be  considered  as  a  signal  of  apostasy, 
and  was  greeted  by  cries  of  "  He  is  fallen !  he  is 
fallen !" — the  favourite  and  most  significant  words  by 
which  the  heathen  expressed  at  once  the  fact  of  a 
Christian's  recantation,  and  their  own  opinion  of  the 
weakness  through  which  he  had  succumbed. 

Under  circumstances  such  as  these,  it  is  not  so  won- 
derful that  many  failed,  as  that  hundreds  and  thousands 
persevered  to  the  end,  winning  their  crown  by  a  long- 
suffering  and  patience  which,  even  in  the  primitive 
Church,  were  never  surpassed.  Men  offered  themselves 
willingly  to  every  torture  which  Eastern  ingenuity 
could  devise,  or  reckless  disregard  of  human  life  put 
into  execution.  Women  looked  calmly  on  while  their 
infants  perished,  and  then  followed  with  gladness  and 
joy  in  the  same  path  to  glory.  At  a  city  near  Omura, 
a  brave  Christian  plunged  his  hand  into  the  burning- 
coal?;,  and  never  withdrew  it  until  commanded  to  do  so 
by  the  tyrant  who  had  taunted  and  dared  him  to  the 
deed;  while  at  Firando  fifty  young  Christians  were 
made  to  kneel  naked  upon  living  embers,  on  the  express 
understanding  that  the  most  involuntary  expression  of 
pain  should  be  considered  as  apostasy;  and  having  by 


164  JAPAN. 

their  unflinching-  firmness  baffled  the  closest  scrutiny  of 
those  who  watched  them,  were  sent  back  to  die,  half 
roasted  as  they  were,  to  their  several  homes.  In  one 
place  eig'hteen  infants  were  put  to  death  in  the  pre- 
sence of  their  parents ;  at  another,  a  child  only  seven 
years  old,  suspected  with  the  rest  of  his  family  of  the 
concealment  of  a  priest,  lived  for  as  many  days  in  the 
midst  of  the  torture  they  inflicted  upon  him,  without 
once  flinching*  or  failing-  in  his  heroic  resolution.  To 
each  fresh  invention  of  their  cruelty  he  only  answered, 
probably  to  avoid  being*  betrayed  into  imprudent  dis- 
closures, "  Jesus,  Mary !  Jesus,  Mary !  How  I  long*  to 
be  in  heaven  with  my  God !"  Nor  could  other  words  be 
extorted  from  his  lips,  even  when,  in  their  despair  of 
succeeding-,  they  cut  open  the  little  creature's  shoulders, 
and  poured  boiling*  lead  into  the  wound;  and  finally,  he 
and  his  family  were  burnt  alive,  without  a  sing-le  one 
among-  them  having*  been  induced  by  weakness  to  g-ive 
evidence  against  the  priest. 

Opposed  to  constancy  such  as  this,  every  ordinary 
mode  of  torture  must  have  seemed  only  useless  and  un- 
meaning-; but  at  length  Bug-endono  hit  upon  another,  and 
one  so  barbarous  in  its  nature,  that  no  tyrant,  however 
cruel  or  ferocious,  who  had  hitherto  ruled  in  Japan,  had 
ever  thought  of  inflicting*  it  on  the  most  guilty  of  his 
subjects. 

Between  Nang*asaki  and  Sima-bara  lies  a  mountain, 
bald,  bleak,  and  treeless,  whitening-  beneath  the  masses 
of  cinders  with  which  it  is  every  where  covered,  and 
with  a  thick  and  stifling*  smoke,  which  can  be  seen  at  a 
distance  of  several  leag-ues,  for  ever  rising*  from  its  sum- 
mit. The  soil  that  covers  its  steep  ascent  is  every  where 
soft  and  spongy,  often  burning*  and  trembling  beneath 
the  footsteps :  while  so  strong*  is  the  smell  of  sulphur 
which  it  continually  exhales,  that  it  is  said  no  bird  can 
live,  or  will  even  attempt  to  fly  within  breathing-  dis- 
tance of  its  tainted  atmosphere.  Deep  and  unfathom- 
able pools  of  boiling-  water  lie  hidden  amid  the  clefts 
and  fissures  which    split  this   gloomy  mountain   into 


CH.  IX.j  JAPAN.  165 

peaks  and  precipices  of  various  sizes ;  but  one,  deeper 
and  more  unfathomable  than  all  the  rest,  instead  of 
water,  is  filled  with  a  mixture  of  sulphur  and  other 
volcanic  matter,  which  seethe  and  bubble  and  boil 
within  its  dark  abyss,  emitting'  all  the  while  so  horrible 
a  stench  as  to  have  gained  it  the  title  of  the  "  Mouth 
of  Hell."  One  drop  alone  of  this  fearful  fluid  is  suffi- 
cient to  produce  an  ulcer  on  the  human  flesh ;  and 
when  Bugendono  thought  on  the  terrible  nature  of  the 
chastisement  he  could  thus  inflict,  and  upon  the  fear 
and  superstition  with  which  the  Japanese  always  re- 
garded the  sulphurous  waters  of  Unsen,  and  the  mys- 
terious cavern  in  which  they  were  produced,  he  felt  that 
he  could  not  have  hit  upon  a  more  efficient  or  infallible 
means  for  the  intimidation  of  the  Christians,  and  the 
extirpation  of  their  creed.  At  the  very  time  when  he 
came  to  this  resolution,  there  chanced  to  be  dispersed 
throughout  Arima  a  band  of  faithful  confessors,  upon 
whom  all  his  previously-invented  tortures  had  been 
tried  in  vain;  and  for  this  reason  the  governor  con- 
sidered they  would  prove  the  Attest  objects  for  his  new 
experiment.  Paul  Uciborg  was  the  chief,  both  for  cou- 
rage and  virtue,  of  this  troop  of  victims ;  and  he  had 
already  witnessed  the  massacre  of  every  member  of  his 
family,  down  even  to  the  youngest  of  his  children, 
who,  in  company  with  fifteen  other  Christians,  had  been 
thrown  into  the  sea,  after  having  first  suffered  every 
possible  cruelty  that  could  barbarously  be  inflicted  upon 
them. 

"  Which  shall  I  begin  with?"  asked  the  executioner, 
as  he  approached  the  two  youngest  of  Paul's  children 
for  the  purpose  of  chopping  oft  their  fingers. 

"  That  is  your  affair,  not  mine,"  the  old  Christian 
answered  bluntly,  probably  to  conceal  a  softer  feeling. 
"  Cut  off  which  and  as  many  as  you  please." 

"  And,  oh  !"  sighed  the  little  Ignatius,  as,  in  the 
very  spirit  of  the  brave  man  his  father,  he  watched  his 
brother's  fingers  falling  joint  by  joint  beneath  the  knife 
of  the  executioner;  "  how  beautiful  your  hand  looks. 


166  JAPAJf. 

my  brother,  thus  mutilated  for  the  sake  of  Jesus  Christ; 
and  how  I  long-  for  my  own  turn  to  come !" 

The  child  who  made  this  exclamation  was  but  five 
years  old  ;  yet,  without  shedding  a  tear,  he  afterwards 
endured  a  similarly  protracted  amputation,  and  then 
silently  and  unresistingly  suffered  himself  to  be  cast  into 
the  ocean.  The  father  and  about  twenty  of  the  re- 
maining- Christians,  who  were  reserved  for  a,  different 
fate,  were,  after  the  massacre  of  their  companions, 
brought  back  to  shore ;  although  so  frightfully  crip- 
pled, from  the  mutilations  they  had  already  undergone, 
that  one  at  least  of  their  number  was  compelled  to  he 
carried  to  his  house  in  a  kind  of  coffin  on  men's  shoul- 
ders. The  governor  had  hoped  that  their  ghastly  ap- 
pearance would  terrifv  others  from  following  their  ex- 
ample ;  but  he  soon  found  that  Jesus  Christ  was  more 
easily  and  more  eloquently  preached  by  such  wounds 
and  such  deeds  as  theirs,  than  by  any  words  that  could 
be  uttered;  and  in  his  vexation  at  the  numbers  who 
flocked  to  them  for  edification  and  encouragement,  he 
condemned  them,  as  we  have  seen,  to  the  boiling"  sul- 
phurs of  Unsen. 

As  the  little  company  of  martyrs  approached  its 
terrible  chasm,  one  among*  them,  at  the  bidding*  of  the 
executioner,  and  in  the  spirit  of  an  Appolonia,  rushed 
forward  at  once,  and  fiung*  himself  into  its  depths ;  but 
Paul,  with  a  more  measured  courage,  commanded  the 
others  to  restrain  their  zeal;  while  to  the  heathens  who 
taunted  him  with  cowardice,  he  contented  himself  by 
saying*,  "that  they  were  not  masters  of  their  own  lives, 
which  God  having*  given,  God  alone  had  a  right  to 
take  away;  and  that  in  reality  there  was  more  real 
courage  in  calmly  waiting*  the  approach  of  death,  than 
in  rushing*  into  its  arms  in  such  a  way  as  to  put  an  end 
to  all  its  terrors  in  a  moment."  Silenced  by  this  an- 
swer, so  calm  and  noble  in  its  genuine  Christian  courage, 
the  executioners  proceeded  to  their  duties ;  and  having 
tied  each  of  the  martyrs  by  ropes,  in  order  to  prevent, 
their  falling  entirely  into  the  chasm,  one  by  one  they 


CH.  IX.]  JAPAN.  167 

lowered  them  into  it?  seething-  contents.  Some  were 
destroyed  at  a  single  plunge;  others,  by  being  quickly 
withdrawn,  were  reserved  tor  the  torment  of  a  second 
immersion;  but  old  Paul,  who  suffered  last,  and  who 
had  excited  the  hatred  of"  the  heathens  by  the  courage 
with  which  it  was  believed  he  had  inspired  his  com- 
panions, they  managed,  with  dexterous  cruelty,  to  let 
down  three  several  times  into  the  abyss  before  life  was 
altogether  extinguished ;  and  each  time  as  he  rose  to 
the  surface  he  was  heard  to  exclaim :  "  Eternal  praise 
be  to  the  ever  adorable  Sacrament  of  the  Altai- !'' 

After  this  first  trial  of  its  power,  the  scalding-  sul- 
phurs of  L  nsen  became  a  favourite  mode  of  torture  for 
the  Christians.  Men,  women,  children,  and  infants 
were  sent  hither  in  crowds.  Some  expired  after  a 
single  plunge ;  others  after  two  or  three  successive 
immersions;  others,  again,  and  the  greater  number, 
were  with  a  more  elaborate  cruelty  sprinkled  with  the 
boiling-  liquor  day  after  day,  often  for  a  period  of  thirty 
days  together,  until  their  bodies  were  one  mass  of  sores 
and  vermin,  and  they  died  from  the  effects  of  this  uni- 
versal ulceration. 

"  Alas  !  what  more  can  they  do  against  you  V* 
asked  a  compassionate  heathen,  as  he  removed  the 
mantle  which  had  been  cast  over  one  of  these  victims, 
and  discovered  the  mass  of  rottenness  and  corruption 
which  lay  hidden  beneath. 

"  You  can  cut  open  my  back,"  answered  the  stern 
old  Christian,  "  and  pour  the  boiling  sulphur  into  the 
wound  ;  hundreds  of  other  torments  there  are  also 
which  you  may  inflict  upon  me,  and  which  I  can  bear 
with  gladness  for  my  God." 

Unhappily,  excepting  for  their  own  salvation,  all 
this  suffering  and  courage  was  of  no  avail.  As  fast  as 
one  tyrant  disappeared  from  the  scene,  another  more 
cruel  and  ferocious  still  stepped  into  his  place.  The  Xo- 
guno  died;  and  he  was  succeeded  by  his  son,  who  took 
the  title  of  the  To-Xoguno,  as  an  intimation  that  he 
considered  himself  greater  than  his  father, — an  assump- 


108  JAPAN. 

tion  which  he  probably  justified  both  to  himself  and  to 
his  subjects  by  the  increased  barbarity  with  which  lie 
pursued  the  Christians,  who  fell  in  greater  numbers 
during-  his  reign  than  during-  any  which  had  pre- 
ceded it. 

Bugendono  likewise  perished  by  a  painful  and  un- 
natural death ;  but  untaught  by  the  terrible  nature  of 
the  chastisement  which  had  fallen  upon  his  predeces- 
sor, Unemondo,  the  new  governor  of  Nangasaki,  ap- 
peared to  have  no  dearer  wish  than  to  surpass,  or, 
it'  that  were  not  possible,  to  equal  him  in  ferocity. 
The  end  of  that  great  persecutor  of  the  Christians  is 
indeed  too  remarkable  to  be  passed  over  in  silence;  and 
it  hardly  seems  rash  to  consider  it  as  a  judgment  of 
Divine  Providence,  that  the  immediate  instrument  of 
his  own  death  should  have  been  the  very  torture  which 
he  had  himself  invented  for  the  Christians.  The  sul- 
phurous waters  of  Unsen  were,  when  reduced  to  a 
moderate  degree  of  heat,  occasionally  used  for  medi- 
cinal purposes;  and  hither,  therefore,  Bugendono  caused 
himself  to  be  carried  for  the  cure  of  a  disease  by  which 
he  was  tormented  ;  but  unable  in  the  frenzy  of  his  fever 
to  calculate  the  proper  temperature  at  which  they 
should  be  used,  he  compelled  his  attendants  to  put 
him  in  immediately  after  they  had  been  brought  fresh 
from  the  chasm,  and  his  body  was  in  an  instant  so  com- 
pletely par-boiled,  that  the  flesh  literally  fell  from  the 
bones  before  he  could  be  taken  out.  His  death,  striking 
as  was  the  coincidence  by  which  it  had  been  accompa- 
nied, appears  to  have  made  no  impression  upon  those 
who  were  fast  following-  in  his  footsteps.  With  fi  i 
sword  the  To-Xoguno  so  inexorably  pursued  his  path, 
that  in  the  third  year  of  his  reig-n  (1633),  from  July 
to  October  alone,  no  fewer  than  sixteen  priests,  be- 
sides several  religious,  principally  Jesuits,  fell  into  the 
hands  of  the  governor  of  Nangasaki.  Among  the 
victims  of  this  four-months'  slaughter,  we  find  the 
names  of  Father  Iscida,  a  Japanese  Jesuit,  and  of  Fa- 
ther Julian  Nicaura,  the  last  survivor  of  the  ambassa- 


CH.  IX.)  JAPAN.  169 

dors  to  Rome ;  some  of  his  companions  having  pre- 
ceded him  by  martyrdom,  while  others  had  died,  it  is 
supposed,  by  a  natural  death.  The  history  of  this  no- 
ble Japanese  reads  almost  like  an  epitome  of  that  of 
the  Church  which  he  had  so  zealously  served.  He  had 
seen  it  almost  in  its  dawn  under  the  care  and  teaching- 
of  the  first  successors  of  St.  Francis ;  he  had  endea- 
voured to  promote  its  best  interests  by  his  embassy  to 
Koine  ;  he  had  afterwards  devoted  himself  to  its  service 
in  the  Society  of  Jesus  ;  and  now,  after  forty-three  years 
of  unmitigated  toil,  of  prayer  and  preaching-,  of  wander- 
ing- from  province  to  province  and  from  kingdom  to 
kingdom,  sometimes  in  his  unceasing-  search  for  souls, 
at  others  in  his  efforts  to  elude  his  pursuers ;  worn  to  a 
very  shadow,  broken  down  and  crushed  as  much  by  his 
bitter  sorrows  as  by  his  life-long-  labours  for  his  perse- 
cuted brethren, — he  sealed  at  last  his  religions  profession 
in  his  blood,  dying-  by  the  trial  of  the  pit,  after  four 
nights  and  days  of  heroic  endurance  of  its  torture.  Se- 
bastian Vieyra  was  another  of  the  more  remarkable  vic- 
tims of  this  blood-stained  year.  He  had  been  sent  to 
Rome  about  ten  years  before  for  the  purpose  of  repre- 
senting- the  disastrous  state  of  the  Japanese  Church  to 
the  Pope ;  Jmt  when  at  length  he  knelt  at  the  feet  of 
Urban  VIII.,  he  was  so  moved  at  the  recollection  of  the 
deplorable  tale  which  he  had  to  tell,  that  he  burst  into 
tears,  and  for  a  considerable  time  was  unable  to  speak. 
The  Holy  Father  received  him  with  much  tenderness 
and  concern,  animated  him  by  his  conversations  to  con- 
stancy and  courage,  and  finally  dismissed  him  with 
letters  of  condolence  to  his  suffering-  brethren,  as  well 
as  with  a  promise  of  exerting-  the  Papal  power  to  the 
utmost  to  procure  a  supply  of  missionaries  for  their  ex- 
piring- Church.  This  last,  however,  proved  unfortunately 
a  nearly  impossible  undertaking'.  It  was  easy  enough 
to  find  priests  willing-  to  go  ;  but  the  question  as  to  how 
they  were  to  be  introduced  into  the  kingdom  was  one 
not  admitting  of  so  ready  a  solution.     Nor  was  it  until 


170  JAPAN. 

the  year  1632  that  Vieyra  himself,  with  all  the  advan- 
tages that  his  previous  knowledge  of  the  language  and 
customs  could  give  him,  succeeded  in  landing,  dis 
us  a  common  sailor,  on  the  most  desolate  art  of  the 
coast.  Twelve  months  afterwards,  he  and  four  other 
Jesuits  were  arrested  at  Osako,  and  brought  prisoners  to 
Jedo.  The  To-Xoguno  did  not  see  him  himself,  be- 
cause the  admission  of  a  condemned  prisoner  into  the 
imperial  presence  was  always  considered  tantamount  to 
granting  him  pardon  ;  but  as  he  fell  extremely  curious 
about  his  journey  to  Europe,  he  sent  confidential  per- 
sons day  alter  day  to  question  him  on  the  subject. 
Vieyra' s  answers  stimulated  his  curiosity,  and  probably 
caused  him  to  feel  an  anxiety  to  preserve  his  life;  for 
every  possible  means  were  attempted  to  procure  his 
apostasy  ;  and  one  day  especially  we  are  told  that  they 
brought  him  into  a  ro  m  filled  with  all  kinds  of  instru- 
ments of  torture,  bidding  him  choose  between  them  and 
the  religion  which  the  emperor  wished  him  to  embrace. 
His  hands  \  ere  unbound,  and  ink  and  paper  given  bim 
that  he  might  write  his  answer,  which  he  did  in  a  few 
spirited  words,  to  the  effect,  that  although  he  would 
always  submit  to  the  temporal  authority  of  the  To- 
Xoguno,  he  could  not  accept  his  spiritual  supremacy; 
and  that  threats  were  useless  to  frighten,  or  promises  to 
allure  him  to  any  other  line  of  conduct ;  since  neither 
the  one  nor  the  other  could  have  any  effect  on  the  soul, 
which  was,  as  it  ought  to  be,  the  chief,  or  rather  the 
only  object  of  his  solicitude.  A  little  later  he  wrote 
down  a  short  formula  of  the  Christian  religion  which 
the  emperor  had  requested  him  to  make,  and  which,  after 
the  hitter  had  perused  with  great  attention,  he  could  not 
forbear  exclaiming :  "  This  European  is  a  man  of  won- 
derful mind  ;  but  if  what  he  says  of  the  [mmortality  of 
the  soul  be  true,  what  will  become  of  ?/.s  hereafter"" 

So  deep,  in  fact,  was  t].\r  impression  made  upon  his 
mind  by  this  paper,  that  the  enemies  of  Chriftianity 
put  every  engine  into  play  in  order  to  accomplish  the 


CH.  IX.]  JAPAN.  1?J 

dentil  of  a  man  who  seemed  but  too  likely  to  lead 
their  imperial  master  into  a  path  diametrically  opposed 

to  their  private  interests  and  inclinations.  With  some 
difficulty  they  succeeded;  and  m  conformity  to  his  sen- 
tence Vievra  was  huner  tor  four  days  with  his  head 

downwards  in  the  pit:  but  the  executioners,  at  the  end 
of  that  time,  finding  him  still  strong-  and  lull  of  life, 
placed  him  over  a  large  fire,  which  speedily  reduced  him 
to  as 

His  execution  took  place  in  1634 ;  and  when,  in  the 
following  year,  the  Portuguese  anchored  as  usual  off 
Nangasaki,  they  found  a  kind  of  wooden  island,  with 
two  rows  of  houses  on  it,  floating  before  the  town,  and 
connected  with  it  by  means  of  a  bridge.  It  was  called 
the  "  Island  of  Desiina,"  and  had  been  constructed 
during  their  absence  at  the  instigation  of  the  Dutch, 
for  the  express  purpose  of  preventing  the  possibility  of 
their  setting  foot  upon  the  land.  Here  they  were  to 
reside  during  their  stay  in  Japan,  and  to  transact  the 
exchange  of  their  merchandise;  while  the  same  edict 
which  sentenced  them  to  this  ignominious  treatment, 
likewise  prohibited  their  displaying  any  crucifix  or  re- 
ligious image  by  which  Christianity  might  be  recalled 
to  the  minds  of  the  people.  The  utter  banishment  in- 
cluded in  this  sentence  put  a  final  blow  to  the  hopes  of 
the  Christians,  by  depriving  them  of  every  chance  of 
future  pastors ;  and  thus,  exposed  at  once  to  all  the  tor- 
tures that  the  murderous  policy  of  their  enemies  could 
devise,  and  deprived  at  the  same  time  of  the  support 
and  consolation  which  only  religion  had  power  to  bestow, 
it  is  not  wonderful  that  at  last  they  yielded  to  despair, 
and  openly  revolted  against  their  rulers.  With  the  as- 
sistance of  Dutch  artillery,  this  ill-digested  movement 
was  speedily  put  down ;  and  the  result  proved  as  fatal 
to  the  Portuguese  as  to  the  native  Christians  them- 
selves ;  for  the  former  having  been  unjustly  accused  by 
their  rivals  of  having  privately  instigated  the  people  to 
rebellion,  they  were  banished  in  a  lit  of  imperial  indig- 
nation, not  only  out  of  Japan,  but  even  out  of  the  Isle 


172  JAPAN. 

of  Desima,  in  which  they  had  hitheito  been  permitted 
to  reside. 

No  subsequent  representations  or  entreaties,  either 
of  the  Portugiiese  merchants  or  of  their  Viceroy  in  the 
Indies,  could  induce  the  To-Xog-uno  to  rescind  this  re- 
solution; from  that  hour  every  attempt  at  negotiation 
was  steadily  resisted;  and  so  strictly  did  he  adhere  to 
the  very  letter  of  his  edict,  that  when  a  solemn  em- 
bassy wns  sent  by  the  government  of  Portugal  to  treat 
with  him  on  the  subject,  the  universal  law  of  nations 
was  disregarded,  and  both  the  ambassadors  themselves, 
and  the  crew  of  the  vessel  which  had  brought  them  over, 
were  condemned  without  mercy  and  executed  on  the  spot. 
Fourteen  only  of  the  latter  were  reserved  to  tell  the 
tale  of  the  martyrdom  of  their  companions;  for  martyrs 
they  were,  since  they  were  offered  their  lives  on  condition 
of  apostasy ;  and  when  the  little  party  of  the  survivors 
were  sent  back  to  India,  they  were  put  in  charge  of  a 
chest  into  which  the  Japanese  had  collected  all  the  bones 
of  their  slaughtered  compatriots,  while  upon  the  lid  they 
had  printed  an  inscription  to  the  effect,  "That  so  long- 
as  the  sun  shone  upon  the  earth,  no  Christian  should 
be  permitted  to  land  in  Japan ;  and  that  if  King-  Philip 
(of  Spain)  himself,  or  the  very  God  of  the  Christians, 
or  even  their  own  Great  Xaca,  the  chiefest  and  highest 
of  their  especial  idols,  were  to  disobey  this  order,  they 
should  be  made  to  pay  for  their  presumption  with  their 
heads." 

Unfortunately,  neither  the  banishment  of  the  Portu- 
guese nor  the  murder  of  their  ambassadors  was  suf- 
ficient to  allay  the  jealous  suspicions  of  the  emperor; 
and  it  was  probably  somewhere  about  this  time  that  the 
ceremony  of  the  Jesumi  was  instituted.  The  name  is, 
apparently,  a  corruption  of  "  Jesus  and  Mary,"  the  in- 
variable rallying*  cry  of  the  Japanese  converts  ;  and 
the  ceremony  itself  consisted  simply  in  trampling  under 
foot  a  crucifix,  or  image  of  the  Madonna,  which  was 
carried  from  house  to  house  by  officers  appointed  for 
the   purpose.      Such   an  act  was   considered   equiva- 


CH.  IX.]  JAPAN.  173 

lent  to  a  formal  recantation ;  for  the  heathens  con- 
cluded— and  who  shall  marvel  at  their  conclusion.'' — 
that  they  who  were  willing"  to  dishonour  the  effigy, 
could  have  no  real  feeling-  of  honour  for  the  original, 
and  therefore  that  they  could  not  be  Christians,  that  is 
to  say,  they  could  not  be  believers  in  the  Divinity  of 
Christ,  if  they  found  in  this  faith  no  motive  for  rever- 
ence to  His  image  or  to  the  image  of  His  Mother. 
Death  was  to  be  the  portion  of  those  who  should  refuse 
thus  to  trample  on  the  likeness  of  their  Saviour;  and 
death  was  accordingly  inflicted  upon  vast  multitudes  of 
Christians  who  remained  true  to  their  creed.  The  time 
had,  in  fact,  arrived,  when  the  light  of  faith,  so  rapidly 
enkindled  b}r  the  prayers  and  preachings  of  St.  Francis, 
was  to  be  as  rapidly  extinguished  in  the  blood  and  tears 
of  his  spiritual  children;  and  sad  and  distressing  to  all 
the  better  feelings  of  the  heart  as  are  the  scenes  through 
which  we  have  been  compelled  to  wade  in  pursuing-  the 
downward  course  of  the  Church  he  founded,  still  is 
there  one  high  thought,  one  dominant  fact  presiding 
over  all  to  encourage  and  console.  That  thought  is  of 
the  grace  of  God,  and  that  fact  the  wonderful  power 
which  the  grace  of  God  so  exercises  over  human  nature, 
as  out  of  its  weakness  to  bring  forth  strength,  and  out 
of  its  bitterest  passions  sweetness,  and  out  of  the  same 
materials  that  went  to  the  formation  of  a  Nero  or  a 
Teigo-Sama  creates  an  Agnes  or  a  Francis  Xavier.  For 
never,  perhaps,  in  the  long  history  of  the  world,  had 
the  miraculous  workings  of  Divine  grace  been  more 
triumphantly  vindicated,  than  in  this  outbreak  of  the 
Gospel  through  the  heathen  realm  of  Japan.  Beneath 
its  sweet  and  saving  influence  men  born  to  a  tradition 
of  lies,  and  nurtured  in  the  indulgence  of  the  worst 
passions  of  their  nature, — proud,  effeminate,  luxurious, 
and  revengeful, — suddenly  became  chaste,  humble,  mor- 
tified, and  forgiving.  The  rich,  who  had  been  in- 
tolerant of  poverty,  as  if  it  had  been  the  badge  and 
banner  of  a  felon's  fate,  now  grew  to  be  loving  and 


174  JAPAN. 

reverent  to  the  poor,  as  the  representatives  of  Jesus  upon 
earth.  Haughty  nobles,  who  had  looked  upon  suicide  as 
but  a  dignified  escape  from  the  hands  of  the  executioner, 
now  patiently  awaited  their  death,  as  it  pleased  their 
tormentors  to  dole  it  out  to  them  by  inches  ;  and  courtly 
philosophers,  who  had  hitherto  ignored  eternity,  because 
they  dared  not  look  on  the  retribution  which  it  threat- 
ened to  their  crimes,  were  now  ready  and  willing  to 
suffer  every  torture  that  could  be  inflicted  upon  them 
for  the  sake  of  the  sure  hope  of  heaven  that  was 
laid  up  in  their  hearts.  Nor  was  it  men  alone  who 
thus  proved  themselves  brave  in  the  hour  of  trial  : 
women  were  every  where  found  to  equal,  sometimes 
even  to  surpass  them  in  stoical  endurance;  and  little 
children  became  as  strong  men  in  the  heroic  resolution 
with  which  they  accepted  sufferings  at  the  hands  of 
their  ruthless  persecutors. 

Many,  indeed,  among  the  people  fell  off,  as  might 
have  been  expected;  but  God  was  glorified  in  thou- 
sands, who  at  the  stake  or  upon  the  cross,  beneath  the 
sword  of  the  headsman  or  in  the  sulphurous  waters 
of  Unsen,  proved  themselves  worthy  disciples  of  a  cru- 
cified Saviour;  while  among  the  clergy,  whether  native 
or  foreign,  only  two  or  three  failed  in  the  hour  of  trial. 
The  rest,  as  they  were  taken,  laid  down  their  lives,  one 
by  one  in  succession;  concealing  themselves,  as  they 
were  in  duty  bound,  as  long  as  they  could,  for  the 
sake  of  their  flocks,  but  going  calmly  and  gladly  to 
the  scaffold  the  instant  that  Providence  seemed  plainly 
to  lead  them  to  its  foot. 

To  say  nothing  of  the  secular  clergy,  and  of  the  re- 
ligious of  different  orders,  who  fell  nearly  every  man 
at  his  post,  it  is  calculated  that  no  fewer  than  four 
hundred  members  of  the  Society  of  Jesus  perished  in 
the  course  of  those  thirty  years  of  persecution  in  Japan; 
and  of  this  vast  number  of  victims  one,  and  one  alone, 
proved  unfaithful  to  his  trust;  while  even  his  place  was 
instantaneously   filled  by  another,  who,  burning  with 


en.  ix.]  japan.  170 

zeal  for  the  glory  of  God,  and  suffering-  mortal  anguish 
for  the  shame  and  scandal  which  such  an  apostasy  had 
brought  on  the  Church,  the  priesthood,  and  the  Si 
of  which  he  was  a  member,  actually  came  from  tl 
west  for  the  express  purpose  of  taking*  the  post  which 
the  renegade  had  abandoned,  and  of  blotting-  out  the 
stain  of  the  perjury  in  his  own  blood.  Mastrilli  was 
the  name  of  this  heroic  religious,  and  his  wish  was 
speedily  fulfilled;  for  he  and  his  companion,  a  man  as 
brave  and  self-devoted  as  himself,  perished  1 
sword,  after  having-  been  tempted  in  vain  to  apo 
by  the  trial  of  the  pit.  Possibly  their  prayers  it  was, 
and  the  merit  of  their  martyrdom,  which  finally  won 
for  their  apostate  brother  the  gift  of  his  conversion;  and 
which  moved  him,  after  many  years  of  struggle  with 
himself,  to  deliver  himself  up  to  the  authorities  of  Nan- 
g-nsaki,  with  the  declaration  that  he  was  a  Christian,  and 
ready  and  willing-  to  sign  and  seal  that  declaration  with 
his  blood.  He  was  instantly  committed  to  the  trial  of 
the  pit,  and  perishei  at  the  age  of  ninety,  after  r'o'ir 
days'  patient  endurance  of  the  self-same  torture  which, 
in  Iris  young-er  and  more  vig-orous  years,  he  had  been 
unable  to  support  for  about  the  same  number  of  hours. 
Full  nineteen  years  elapsed  between  the  failure  of  his 
first  trial  and  the  triumphant  conclusion  of  his  hist ;  and 
daring-  that  space  of  time  each  succeeding-  attempt  of 
European  missionaries  on  Japan  is  but  the  history  of  a 
martyrdom  and  a  g-rnve. 

Jn  1643,  Father  Rubino,  a  Jesuit,  with  four  com- 
panions, succeeded  in  landing-  at  Satzuma;  but  they  had 
not  been  two  days  in  the  country  before  they  were 
arrested — made  to  suffer,  first  the  torment  of  water  (as 
it  has  been  already  described)  every  day  for  several 
months,  then  that  of  fire,  which,  by  means  of  lighted 
torches,  was  applied  all  over  their  persons,  the  wounds 
being  systematically  healed  for  the  purpose  of  renewing- 
the  application;  and  at  the  close  of  nearly  a  year  of 
unceasing-  suffering-  and  unwearied  patience,  they  were 
condemned,  as  a  last  resource,  to  the  trial  of  the  pit. 


170  JAPAN. 

So  vivid  was  the  joy  with  wliicli  they  all  listened  to 
this  sentence,  that,  fancying-  its  purport  had  been  mis- 
understood, the  governor  caused  it  to  be  read  over 
again;  but  they,  perceiving-  his  mistake,  assured  him 
they  were  -already  well  aware  of  its  contents,  and  that 
the  g-ladness  he  had  seen  on  their  faces  was  but  the 
natural  expression  of  the  feeling  with  which  they  con- 
templated their  approaching-  union  with  their  God. 
They  all  remained  firm  to  the  end :  one  of  them  living 
for  no  less  than  nine  days  in  the  nearly  unendurable 
torture  to  which  they  had  been  condemned;  and  their 
death  was  soon  followed  by  that  of  Father  Marcpiez, 
another  Jesuit,  with  four  companions,  also  of  the  Society, 
who  were  arrested  almost  as  soon  as  they  had  set  foot 
upon  the  shore.  They  were  brought  by  their  captors 
to  Jedo,  where  they  were  confronted  with  some  of  the 
Dutch  dealers,  who  had  been  sent  for  from  Nangasaki 
to  ident  ifv  them  as  priests,  and  to  whom  we  are  in- 
debted for  our  account  of  their  trial  and  martyrdom. 
"  The  Jesuits/'  says  Haren,  "  were  seated  on  mise- 
rable mats;  their  faces  pale  and  emaciated,  eyes  dim 
and  sunk  deeply  in  their  heads,  hands  blackened  and 
purpled,  and  bodies  all  bruised  by  the  horrible  tortures 
to  which  they  had  been  already  subjected.  They  an- 
swered with  great  courage  and  frankness  to  the  ques- 
tions proposed  by  their  judges,  and  their  limbs  being- 
sawn  off,  one  by  one,  by  order  of  the  To-Xoguno,  such 
of  them  as  did  not  sink  at  once  under  the  torture  Mere 
carried  back  to  prison,  where  they  speedily  expired." 

The  martyrdom  of  John  Baptist  Sidotti  is  the  last 
which  we  find  on  record  in  the  annals  of  Japan.  He 
seems  to  have  heen  attracted  to  this  perilous  mission 
from  his  earliest  youth;  and  after  employing  himself 
for  many  years  in  the  study  of  the  Japanese  language, 
he  obtained  a  mission  from  the  Pope  to  go  and  preach  in 
that  kingdom.  Two  more  years  were  spent  at  Manilla 
in  order  to  perfect  his  knowledge  of  the  language;  and 
his  design  becoming  public,  every  facility  was  afforded 
him  for  carrying  it  into  execution, — a  ship  being  even 


CH.  IX.]  JAPAN.  177 

fitted  out  for  his  use  by  the  governor  of  the  Philip- 
pines. He  was  already  within  landing-distance  of 
Japan,  when  a  fishing-boat  hove  in  £  da  native 

idolater,  who  had  accompanied  them  on  their  v< 
lit  to  try  and  bribe  its  crew  into  silence, 
does  not  appear  to  have  been  successful,  for  when  he 
returned  to  the  ship  he  did  all  he  could  to  dissuade  Si- 
dotti  from  his  enterprise;  hut  after  long  and  earnest 
prayer,  the  latter  told  the  captain  that  this  was  the 
moment  for  which  he  had  so  ardently  sighed ;  and  that 
being*  in  sight  of  Japan,  nothing  should  prevent  him 
from  attempting  to  land, — since  he  did  not  rely  for 
success  upon  his  own  strength,  but  rather  upon  the 
grace  and  goodness  of  God,  and  upon  the  prayers  of 
those  who  had  already  shed  their  blood  on  its  soil. 

Finding  it  impossible  to  dissuade  him,  the  captain 
proceeded  to  make  arrangements  for  landing  him  at 
night ;  and  in  the  mean  time  Sidotti  employed  himself 
in  writing  letters  and  in  making  a  short  exhortation  to 
the  crew,  in  the  course  of  which  he  asked  their  pardon 
for  any  scandal  he  might  have  given,  and  for  any  defi- 
ciency in  the  religious  instruction  they  had  received  at 
his  hands.  It  could  have  been  but  humility  alone  which 
had  prompted  this  request;  for  his  life  on  board,  as  well 
as  every  where  else,  had  been  most  saintly,  and  the  chief 
portion  of  his  time  had  been  employed  both  earnestly  and 
efficaciously  in  leading  the  crew  to  virtue.  His  last  act 
on  board  was  to  kiss,  in  unfeigned  lowliness  of  spirit,  the 
feet  of  all;  and  towards  midnight  he  and  the  captain  de- 
scended into  the  boat  which  was  to  convey  them  to  land. 
During  their  short  transit  Sidotti  was  deeply  absorbed  in 
prayer ;  but  as  they  touched  the  shore,  he  threw  himself 
on  his  knees  and  devoutly  kissed  the  ground,  thanking 
God  for  having  brought  him  at  length  to  this  land,  the 
object  of  all  his  wishes  and  his  prayers.  The  captain 
accompanied  him  a  little  way  in  shore ;  and  when  it  was 
necessary  to  separate,  he  forced  a  few  pieces  of  gold  upon 
his  acceptance,  in  hopes  of  its  enabling  him  to  propitiate 
the  Japanese,  and  then  affectionately  took  his  leave. 


178  JAPAN. 

He  had  not  done  so  a  minute  too  soon  for  Iris  own  safety; 
for  iris  boat  had  scarcely  reached  the  ship  before  Sirio'tti 
was  a  prisoner  and  on  his  way  to  Nangasaki.  There,  like 
his  predecessors,  he  was  confronted  with  the  Dutch,  who 
describe  him  as  a  tall  pale  man,  with  black  hair,  and 
about  forty  years  of  age.  He  wore  a  Japanese  robe, 
and  a  chain,  from  whence  a  crucifix  depended,  was 
hanging  from  his  neck;  his  Rosary  was  in  his  bands, 
which  were  manacled  at  the  wrist,  and  he  carried  a 
couple  of  books  under  Jris  arm.  As  he  understood 
Japanese,  there  was  no  need  of  an  interpreter:  and  his 
answers  were  perfectly  frank  and  open  as  to  the  nature 
of  his  intentions  in  coming-  to  Japan.  After  many  ques- 
tions upon  this  subject,  they  asked  him  if  he  were  aware 
of  the  laws  against  the  landing-  of  the  Spaniards  and  Por- 
tuguese, to  which  he  also  replied  in  the  affirmative  ;  but 
added,  that  they  did  not  apply  to  him,  as  he  was  an 
Italian.  At  this  juncture  of  the  conversation,  observing 
some  of  the  spectators  busy  with  the  bag-  which  con- 
tained the  vessels  for  the  celebration  of  Mass,  he  inter- 
rupted himself  to  beg*  that  no  irreverence  might  be 
offered  to  them  -a  request  that  was  instantly,  and  in  a 
very  decorous  manner,  complied  with.  He  was  after- 
wards sent  to  Jedo,  where  he  lingered  in  captivity  for 
a  considerable  number  of  years  ;  but  as  he  contrived  to 
convert  nearly  every  one  who  approached  him,  he  was 
at  last  immured  in  a  cavity  from  four  to  five  i'eet  in 
depth,  his  food  being*  supplied  him  through  an  opening* 
at  the  top;  and  after  lingering  on  for  some  time  in 
inconceivable  agony,  he  expired  at  last  from  the  effects 
of  this  protracted  torture. 

From  the  hour  of  his  death  no  Christian  missionary 
has  ever  set  his  loot  in  the  kingdom  of  Japan.  The 
Dutch  alone  have  permission  to  approach  its  shores; 
but,  by  a  singular  retribution,  they  have  themselves 
been  banished  to  that  Isle  of  Desima  which  their  in- 
trigues had  caused  to  be  erected  for  their  rivals;  and 
their  trade,  which,  even  in  the  face  of  Portuguese  com- 
petition, had  enabled  them  to  send  seven  or  eight  ships 


CH.  IX.]  JAPAN.  179 

to  the  Japanese  market,  has  g-radually  dwindled  into 
such  total  insignificance,  that  in  Bell's  System  of  Geo- 
graphy we  find  it  stated  that  two  at  the  outside  now 
suffice  for  its  demands.  Commerce  was  then,  as  it  is 
now,  their  only  object,-  and  in  pursuance  of  its  sordid 
gains  they  have  been  content  to  leave  Japan  to  its 
idol-worship,  without  thought  or  effort  to  win  it  to 
the  knowledge  of  the  living  God.  This  was  their 
compact  with  its  imperial  ruler-  and  this  compact 
they  both  then  and  since  have  rigidly  observed.  Not 
only  did  they  leave  the  heathen  to  be  heathen  still ;  but 
in  the  very  hottest  of  the  persecution  they  either  aided 
(as  we  have  already  seen)  the  emperor  in  his  murderous 
designs  against  the  Christians,  or  sat  still  in  supreme 
indifference,  suffering  him  without  remonstrance  to 
root  out  the  Christian  religion  by  the  extermination 
of  his  people, — banishing,  burning,  drowning,  and  be- 
heading-, and  carrying  his  jealous  hatred  into  the  very 
realms  of  death  itself,  by  digging  up  the  bones  of  the 
martyred  dead,  and  scattering  them  abroad  on  the 
waters  of  the  ocean. 

With  all  his  efforts,  however,  and  those  of  his  suc- 
cessors, it  is  very  doubtful  whether  Christianity  is  even 
at  this  instant  entirely  extinct  in  Japan.  It  had  spread 
too  widety,  and  been  too  deeply  rooted  in  the  hearts  of 
the  people,  to  be  entirely  forgotten  in  the  course  of  a 
few  generations ;  and  accordingly,  even  so  late  as  the 
eighteenth  century,  a  Jesuit  missionary  in  China  tells  us 
of  certain  holy  pictures,  painted  upon  porcelain,  which 
the  Chinese  had  been  then  recently  in  the  habit  of  manu- 
facturing for  the  markets  of  Japan.  And  later  still,  an 
author  of  the  present  day  assures  us  that  the  Japanese 
possess  a  knowledge  of  the  ten  commandments  which, 
whatever  may  be  their  own  theory  on  the  subject,  they 
evidently  must  have  derived  from  the  Christian  tradi- 
tion ;  while  the  Chinese,  whose  opinion — as  their  nearest 
neighbours,  and  the  most  closely  associated  with  them 
both  by  commerce  and  by  customs — is  worthy  at  least 
of  considerable  attention,  were  not  very  many  years  ago 


180  JAPAN. 

impressed  with  the  idea  that  Christianity,  instead  of 
being-  defunct,  was  merely  dormant  among-  the  people. 
Nor  even  now  at  the  eleventh  hour  is  the  Catholic 
Church  unmindful  of  this  once  fair  and  flourishing- 
portion  of  her  heavenly  inheritance ;  but  from  the  east 
and  from  the  west,  from  China  and  from  India,  and 
from  the  distant  shores  of  France — always  the  great 
depot  of  missionary  workmen — zealous  and  devoted  men 
are  ever  on  the  watch  for  a  favourable  moment  to  fol- 
low in  the  footsteps  of  St.  Francis  Xavier,  and  to  raise 
again  the  cry  of  salvation  by  which  he  once  gathered 
its  multitudes  around  the  banner  of  the  cross.  So  strict, 
however,  is  the  blockade,  and  so  severe  are  the  regula- 
tions by  which  every  avenue  of  the  country  is  closed, 
that  all  attempts  have  hitherto  proved  in  vain ;  and  in 
the  mean  time  terror  and  tyranny  have  effectually  re- 
pressed every  outward  demonstration  of  Christianity. 
Heathenism  in  its  lowest  form  broods  darkly  over  the 
benighted  land  ;  and  the  ceremony  of  the  "  Jesumi," 
renewed  year  after  year  at  ISangasaki,  if  it  bear  witness, 
by  the  suspicion  it  indicates,  to  an  element  of  true  re- 
ligion still  existing  in  the  nation,  gives  also,  alas!  a 
melancholy  testimony  to  the  fact,  that  not  one  is  left 
with  enough  of  Christianity  or  enough  of  courage  to 
confess  to  the  existence  of  the  living  God,  there  on 
the  very  spot  where  thousands  laid  clown  their  lives 
for  Him,  in  the  days  when  the  Church  which  His  Son 
had  commissioned  to  teach  all  nations  shed  the  light  of 
faith  over  the  realms  of  Japan. 


CONTENTS, 


CHAPTER  I. 

SPANIARDS  AND  INDIANS. 

PAGE 

Character  of  the  Spanish  colonists.  The  system  of  encomi- 
enda.  First  missionary  efforts.  Arrival  of  the  Jesuit  Fa- 
thers.    Their  labours  and  successes  among  the  Indians 

CHAPTER  IL 

SEARCH  FOR  SOULS. 

The  Jesuits  oppose  the  enslaving  of  the  natives.  Appeal  to  the 
king.  Manifesto  of  the  Fathers.  Rapacity  of  the  colonists. 
The  first  "reductions,"  and  the  first  martyrs.  Renewed 
contentions.  Second  appeal  to  the  home  government, 
which  supports  the  Jesuits.  Expulsion  of  the  Fathers  from 
Assumption 13 

CHAPTER  III. 

FIRST  FOUNDATIONS. 

Paraguay.  Character  and  habits  of  the  natives.  The  work  of 
conversion  and  civilisation.  Description  of  a  reduction.  Its 
internal  government.  Occupations  of  the  missionaries. 
Regulations  as  to  property  and  commerce     .        .        .        .27 

CHAPTER  IV. 

A  DAY  IN  THE  REDUCTIONS. 

Church,  schools,  workshops.  &c.  Feast  of  Corpus  Christi.  Di- 
versions. Religious  and  moral  habits  of  the  people  Their 
zeal  for  the  conversion  of  their  brethren.  Arrival  of  fresh 
missionaries.     Ravages  of  the  small-pox        .  .    42 


IV  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER   V. 

THE   MAMELUKES   OF  ST.  TATTL'S. 

PAG* 

St.  Paul's.  Lawlessness  of  its  inhabitants.  Their  treachery 
and  cruelty  to  tho  Indians.  Attack  on  the  reductions. 
First  migrations.  Courage  and  determination  of  the  mis- 
sionaries. Crimes  of  the  "Mamelukes."  The  Fathers  re- 
solve to  evacuate  the  reductions 56 

CHAPTER  VI. 

THE  RETREAT  ON  THE  PARANA. 

Disasters  and  sufferings  of  the  emigrants.  Spaniards  continue 
to  molest  the  old  reductions.  Flight  of  the  inhabitants. 
Renewed  attacks  of  the  Mamelukes.  The  Indians,  allowed 
the  use  of  fire-arms,  defeat  the  marauders.  New  s-  ttle- 
ments.  Intrepidity  of  the  missionaries.  Bernardin  de  Car- 
denas, Bishop  of  Assumption.  His  charges  against  the 
Jesuits.  The  fable  of  the  gold-mines.  Insurrection  of  the 
colonists  quelled  by  the  Christian  natives       .         .        .        .70 

CHAPTER  VII. 

THE  FINAL  BLOW. 

Martyrdoms  of  FF.  Ortiz  and  Solinas.  Success  of  F.  de  Arce\ 
Martyrdoms  of  FF.  Cavallero,  de  Arce,  Blende,  Sylva, 
Maco,  and  thirty  neophytes.  Antequera  usurps  the  govern- 
ment ;  persecutes  the  Jesuits.  His  repentance  and  death. 
Rebels  a  second  time  defeated  by  the  Christian  Indians. 
Renewal  of  charges  against  the  missionaries.  Martyrdom 
of  F.  Lizardi.  Treaty  of  exchange  between  Spain  and  Por- 
tugal ;  forced  emigration  of  the  natives.  Persecution  and 
decoration  of  the  Jesuits.  Present  state  of  Paraguay. 
Review  of  the  labours  of  the  Society  in  that  country     .        .     84 


Character  of  the  Spanish  colonists.  The  system  of 
encomienda.  First  missionary  efforts.  Arrival 
of  the  Jesuit  Fathers.  Their  labours  and  suc- 
cesses among  the  Indians. 

'OWEVER  dark  the  record  of 
Spanish  crime  in  the  settle- 
ments of  South  America,  how- 
ever frightful  the  cruelties  and 
oppressive  the  tyranny  exercised  upon  the 
unhappy  natives,  no  one  cm  read  the  history  of  those 
times  with  an  unprejudiced  mind,  and  still  consider  the 
government  of  the  mother-country  as  being  entirely  or 
even  greatly  responsible  for  them.  From  Charles  V. 
of  Austria  to  Philip  V.  of  the  Bourbon  dynasty,  the 
Spanish  monarchs,  in  fact,  invariably  took  the  part  of 
the  oppressed  against  the  oppressor  ;  and  all  their 
general  regulations,  as  well  as  all  their  especial  direc- 
tions to  their  vice-regal  representatives  in  the  colonies, 
tended  alike  to  the  restriction  of  the  power  of  the  con- 
quering Spaniard,  and  to  the  amelioration  of  the  con- 
dition of  the  conquered  native.  That  such  humane 
endeavours  should  have  proved  a  failure  might  have 
been  a  cause  for  wonder  had  it  occurred  in  the  present 


y  PARAGUAY. 

day,  when  facilities  for  communication  have  so  greatly 
lessened  the  difficulty  of  legislating  for  a  distant  people; 
hut  that  such  should  have  heen  the  case  in  those  times 
appears  the  almost  inevitahle  consequence  of  the  dis- 
tance of  the  countries  to  govern  and  to  he  governed, 
the  dangers  and  delay  attendant  on  the  communication 
between  them,  the  total  ignorance  of  the  people  for 
whom  they  were  thus  called  upon  to  legislate,  but, 
more  than  all  the  rest,  the  vicious  character  of  those  to 
whom  the  Spanish  monarch  was  perforce  compelled  to 
delegate  his  power. 

For  it  happened  then,  as  it  very  possibly  might  have 
happened  even  now,  that  while  the  good,  the  just,  and 
the  noble-minded  remained  quietly  at  home,  the  idle, 
the  unprincipled,  and  the  desperate,  those,  in  a  word, 
who  had  lost  their  fortunes  by  extravagance,  or  their 
characters  by  excess,  sought  to  repair  the  one  or  to 
redeem  the  other  by  a  greedy  search  after  gold  or  a 
reckless  pursuit  of  adventure  in  the  new  world.  Men 
such  as  these  would  under  any  circumstances  have 
thought  but  lightly  of  infringing'  the  law ;  many  of 
them,  in  fact,  had  often  done  so  even  in  their  native 
land.  What  wonder,  then,  that  with  broad  seas  be- 
tween them  and  the  legal  punishment  of  their  misdeeds, 
intrenched  moreover  amid  the  rocks  and  fastnesses  of 
the  untrodden  regions  they  had  made  their  own,  they 
should  have  defied  with  impunity  every  effort  to  con- 
trol their  actions ;  or  that  the  history  of  the  Spanish 
colonies  should  in  consequence  have  become  one  long 
scene  unrolled  of  rapine,  murder,  and  rebellion ;  of 
governors  not  only  defeated  in  their  attempts  at  re- 
storing order,  but  deposed,  murdered,  or  sent  home 
blackened  by  calumny,  to  die  in  a  dungeon;  of  bad 
men  gaining  the  upper  hand  by  means  which  the  good 
were  too  scrupulous  to  employ;  and  of  barbarities  exer- 
cised on  the  unhappy  natives,  beneath  which,  if  they  at 
times  revolted,  they  much  oftener  pined  and  drooped 
and  faded  away,  until  the  red  Indian  had  well-nigh  dis- 
appeared from  the  land  which  his  fathers  had  possessed 


CH.  I.]  SPANIARDS  .AND  INDIANS.  3 

in  peace,  and  which  for  untold  centuries  they  had  called 
their  own. 

The  fatal  policy  of  distributing'  the  Indians  enco- 
mienda  among-  the  Spaniards  no  doubt  tended  greatly 
to  increase  the  suffering's  of  that  unhappy  race,  by 
giving  something  of  the  force  of  law  to  an  appropria- 
tion of  native  labour  which  would  otherwise  have  been 
stigmatised  as  an  act  of  private  injustice.  By  the 
regulations  of  this  system,  a  certain  number  of  Indians 
were,  for  a  given  term  of  years,  parcelled  out  to  in- 
dividuals, who  for  two  months  in  .every  year  had  a 
right  to  their  personal  service,  besides  exacting-  an 
annual  tribute  from  them  ;  and  in  return,  the  master, 
or  "  commander,"  as  he  was  most  usually  called,  was 
bound  to  see  to  the  comfort  and  instruction,  both  religi- 
ous and  secular,  of  the  natives  confided  to  his  care.  As 
originally  designed  by  the  crown,  these  conditions  were 
by  no  means  unmerciful;  and  had  they  been  carried 
out  by  the  colonists  in  a  similar  spirit,  would  undoubt- 
edly have  led  to  a  much  more  rapid  civilising*  and 
Christianising'  of  the  Indian  population  than  could 
otherwise  have  been  accomplished.  It  may,  and  in- 
deed it  must,  be  objected  to  the  system,  that  the  labour 
being-  compulsory,  their  state  was  in  fact  nothing*  short 
of  slavery.  But,  on  the  one  hand,  we  must  remember 
that  it  was  desig-ned  for  men  who,  without  this  restric- 
tion as  to  time,  would  in  all  probability  have  attempted 
and  effected  a  life-long-  servitude  of  the  native ;  and  on 
the  other,  it  is  surely  an  open  question  whether  in 
reality  it  may  not  have  been  a  more  humane  and  equi- 
table mode  of  dealing*  with  the  Indian  than  that  of 
driving*  him  by  main  force  from  his  possessions,  or 
cheating-  his  childish  simplicity  into  the  exchange  of 
the  broad  lands  that  God  and  nature  had  bestowed 
upon  him  for  beads,  and  gewgaws,  and  trumpery  trin- 
kets,— to  say  nothing  of  the  deliberate  dulling  of  in- 
tellect and  shortening  of  life  by  the  fatal  gift  of  brandy 
(the  fire-water  of  the  savage),  in  order  to  blind  him 
more  effectually  to  the  ruinous  nature  of  the  bargain 


4  PARAGUAY. 

he  was  contracting-;  all  which  have  been  the  notorious 
practices  of  other  nations,  and  more  modern  and  (so  to 
speak,  by  courtesy)  more  liberal  times. 

Whether,  however,  the  means  adopted  were  judici- 
ous or  the  contrary,  most  certainly  the  object  of  the 
Spanish  government  was  chiefly  directed  to  the  tem- 
poral and  eternal  welfare  of  the  people  so  suddenly  and 
unexpectedly  confided  to  its  care ;  but,  unhappily,  it 
never  was  in  a  condition  to  command  that  rigid  adher- 
ence to  its  regulations  which  was  absolutely  necessary 
to  insure  success.  Cruel  and  rapacious,  and  divested 
of  all  save  the  externals  of  religion,  the  Spaniards 
thought  of  nothing  higher  than  the  rapid  acquisition  of 
wealth  by  every  means  within  their  power.  In  such 
hands  as  theirs  the  system  of  assignment  rapidly  de- 
generated into  a  positive  slavery ;  and  the  natives  either 
died  by  hundreds  beneath  the  imposition  of  unaccus- 
tomed burdens,  or,  scandalised  by  the  vices  and  revolted 
by  the  cruelty  of  their  owners,  confounded  at  length 
the  religion  which  their  masters  professed  with  the  vices 
which  they  practised,  and  resolutely  adhered  to  that 
idolatry  which  had  become  to  them  the  badge  of  free- 
dom, while  Christianity  was  identified  in  their  eyes  with 
a  state  of  servitude.  In  vain  Charles  V.  and  his  suc- 
cessor Philip  endeavoured  to  regulate  and  prevent 
these  disorders ;  in  vain  an  officer  was  appointed  whose 
especial  charge  it  was  to  investigate  the  treatment  of 
the  Indians,  and  to  deprive  of  authority  and  office  all 
who  abused  or  trespassed  on  their  weakness ;  the  dis- 
tance of  the  mother- country  proved  an  insuperable  bar 
to  any  real  or  permanent  redress,  and  sixty  years  had 
rolled  away  since  the  first  possession  of  the  land,  and 
nothing  effectual  had  yet  been  done  to  advance  the 
cause  of  civilisation,  or  to  establish  the  empire  of  Jesus 
Christ  upon  the  old  idolatries  of  its  heathen  occupants. 

It  was  not  that  the  Catholic  Church  was  idle  or  in- 
different; the  historian  of  Peru  and  Mexico,  uncatholic 
and  anticatholic  as  he  is,  has  yet  most  truly  said,  "  The 
effort  to  Christianise  the  heathen  is  an  honourable  cha- 


CH.  I.J  SPANIARDS  AND  INDIANS.  0 

racteristic  of  the  Spanish  conquests.  The  Puritan,  with 
equal  religious  zeal,  did  comparatively  little  for  the 
conversion  of  the  heathen,  content,  as  it  would  seem, 
with  having-  secured  to  himself  the  inestimable  privilege 
of  worshipping*  God  in  his  own  way.  Other  adven- 
turers who  have  occupied  the  new  world  have  often  had 
too  little  regard  for  religion  themselves  to  be  very  soli- 
citous about  spreading*  it  among  the  savag-es.  But  the 
Spanish  missionary  from  first  to  last  has  shown  a  keen 
interest  in  the  spiritual  prospects  and  welfare  of  the  na- 
tives. Under  his  auspices  churches  on  a  magnificent 
scale  have  been  erected,  schools  for  elementary  instruc- 
tion founded,  and  every  rational  means  taken  to  spread 
the  knowledge  of  religious  truth ;  while  he  has  carried 
his  solitary  mission  into  remote  and  almost  inaccessible 
regions,  or  gathered  his  Indian  disciples  into  communi- 
ties like  the  g'ood  Las  Casas  in  Cumana,  or  the  Jesuits 
in  California  or  Paraguay.  At  all  times  the  courageous 
ecclesiastic  has  been  ready  to  lift  his  voice  against  the 
cruelty  of  the  conqueror,  and  the  no  less  wasting-  cu- 
pidity of  the  colonists ;  and  when  his  remonstrances,  as 
was  too  often  the  case,  have  proved  unavailing,  he  has 
still  followed,  to  bind  up  the  broken  heart,  to  teach  the 
poor  Indian  resignation  under  his  lot,  and  to  light  up 
his  dark  intellect  with  the  revelations  of  a  holier  and 
happier  existence." 

All  this,  and  a  great  deal  more  besides,  did  the 
Spanish  missionaries  in  behalf  of  the  poor  Indians  ;  but 
how  were  they  to  succeed  in  their  appointed  mi-sion 
where  every  thing  tended  to  neutralise  their  efforts  ! 
How  were  they  to  convince  the  savage  of  the  paramount 
importance  of  religion,  when  he  saw  among  his  rulers 
no  anxiety  except  for  gold  ?  How  were  they  to  press 
upon  him  the  necessity  of  patience,  purity,  meekness, 
and  humility,  when  pride,  rapacity,  cruelty,  and  revenue, 
were  the  chief  characteristics  displayed  for  their  imita- 
tion ?  Or  how  were  they  to  tell  of  the  glory  of  a  sou] 
absolved  from  sin,  while  the  body  ot  the  hapless  listener 
was  wasting-  and  withering-  away  in  chains  provided  by 


O  PARAGUAY. 

the  professors  of  the  doctrine  which  the}'  preached  ?  It 
was,  in  fact,  a  hopeless  task,  so  long-  at  least  as  they 
could  neither  promise  indemnity  to  the  Christian  convert, 
nor  even  prevent  the  very  fact  of  conversion  being  made 
a  pretext  for  enforcing-  the  odious  slavery  of  the  cncomi- 
enda;  and,  forced  unfortunately  by  their  position  to  me- 
diate continually  between  the  opposing-  parties,  to  preach 
patience  on  the  one  hand,  and  forbearance  on  the  other, 
they  gradually  but  surely  lost  the  confidence  of  both  j 
the  Indian  dreading-  them  as  being  of  the  nation  of  the 
oppressor,  while  the  Spaniard  hated  them  as  the  defend- 
ers of  the  oppressed.  Where  the  Spanish  foot  had  never 
trod,  or  the  Spanish  tongue  never  had  been  heard,  there 
the  missionary  had  a  fairer  chance;  crowds  would 
fearlessly  g-ather  round  him,  and  won  by  the  beauty  of 
the  doctrine  he  preached,  would  gladly  and  eagerly 
receive  baptism  at  his  hand.  But  the  Christian  priest 
was  too  often,  even  in  his  own  despite,  made  the  pioneer 
of  the  Spanish  soldier ;  as  sure  as  his  track  was  on  the 
mountain,  so  sure  was  the  searcher  of  gold  to  be  in  his 
footsteps ;..  and  peace  and  order  vanished  as  he  came. 
The  Indian  was  consigned  to  the  slavery  of  the  mines ; 
his  wife  and  children,  }'et  more  unmercifully,  sold  to 
the  highest  bidder  in  the  market;  and  the  unhappy 
missionary,  balked  of  the  fruit  of  all  his  labours,  was 
fain  to  seek  out  a  more  distant  people,  or  to  remain  and 
break  his  heart,  and  wear  out  his  whole  existence,  in 
stemming  the  tide  of  vice,  which  gave  the  poor  savage 
but  too  plausible  an  excuse  for  returning  or  cleaving  to 
the  superstition  of  his  fathers. 

It  was  plain  that  in  a  contest  such  as  this  no  isolated 
efforts  of  zeal  would  avail  to  victory.  A  body  of  men 
was  needed,  who  would  not  only  scatter  seed,  but  watch 
its  growth;  in  other  words,  who  would  gather  the  neo- 
phytes into  congTegations,  and  alike  defend  them  from 
Spanish  tyranny  and  keep  them  aloof  from  Spanish 
crime.  The  secular  clergy  and  Franciscan  friars  were 
far  too  few  in  number  fully  to  carry  out  a  work  like 
this;    and  at  length   Francis    Victor,    the   Dominican 


CH.  I.]  SPANIARDS  AND  INDIANS.  7 

Bishop  of  St.  Michael's,  finding-  himself  almost  without 
priest  or  religious  whom  he  could  send  upon  the  mission, 
addressed  himself  to  the  Societ}-  of  Jesus  for  their  aid. 
They  had  not,  however,  waited  for  this  summons  to 
visit  South  America,  having*  been  sent  to  Lima  some 
time  before  by  the  burning-  zeal  of  Borgia,  the  third, 
and  after  the  saintly  founder  of  the  Society,  the  greatest 
of  its  generals.  In  that  city  they  had  built  a  church 
and  college;  and  while  Father  Portilla  stirred  the 
masses  of  the  people  by  his  mig'hty  eloquence,  Father 
Lewis  Lopez  devoted  himself  to  the  instruction  of  the 
negroes ;  and  the  rest  went  forth  among*  the  natives, 
attended  the  hospitals,  and  made  themselves  all  thing's 
to  all  men  that  they  mig*ht  win  all  to  Christ. 

Gladly  these  apostolic  men  accepted  the  invitation 
of  the  Bishop  to  enlarge  the  theatre  of  their  labours; 
the  success  of  their  missions  more  than  realised  his  ex- 
pectations; the  Bishop  of  Tucuman  sought  them  likewise 
for  his  diocese;  and  in  1586  they  were  received,  with 
almost  regal  honours,  in  the  city  of  Santiago.  The 
governor  himself,  with  all  his  officers,  and  the  chief 
nobility  of  the  city,  came  out  to  meet  them ;  they  were 
conducted  through  streets  adorned  with  triumphal 
arches  and  strewn  with  flowers ;  crowds  assembled  to 
greet  them  as  they  passed ;  and  weeping  for  joy,  the 
Bishop  himself  embraced  and  blessed  them,  and  led  them 
to  his  cathedral,  where  a  Te  Deitm  was  intoned  in 
thanksgiving  for  their  arrival.  Well  might  the  old 
man  weep  for  joy ;  five  secular  and  a  few  regular  clergy 
being  the  utmost  he  had  hitherto  been  able  to  command 
for  the  instruction  of  the  vast  and  reckless  population 
over  which  he  ruled;  while  he  himself  was  all  but  sink- 
ing beneath  the  responsibilities  of  his  position,  and  his 
anxious  endeavours  to  fulfil  them  in  his  own  person. 
Although  the  Jesuits  felt  themselves  more  especially 
called  to  the  conversion  of  the  heathen,  they  saw  that 
all  their  efforts  in  that  direction  would  be  in  vain,  if  the 
poor  natives  were  still  to  be  corrupted  by  the  example 
of  those  above  them  in  station  and  intelligence ;  they 


8  PARAGUAY. 

therefore  commenced  their  labours  by  a  mission  among 
the  Spaniards.  It  succeeded  almost  beyond  their  hopes; 
for  a  time  at  least  the  latter  were  won  to  holier  lives ; 
and  the  Indians,  seeing"  the  g'ood  effect  which  had  been 
produced  by  the  preaching-  of  the  Fathers  upon  their 
rulers,  willingly  submitted  in  their  turn,  and  flocked  in 
crowds  to  hear  them.  Two  of  the  missionaries  had  by 
this  time  qualified  themselves  to  address  them  in  a  lan- 
gurige  they  understood  ;  and  after  having-  preached  for 
some  days  to  the  Indians  of  the  town,  they  went  forth 
to  those  who  were  scattered  through  the  district,  when 
upwards  of  seven  thousand  neophytes,  fervent  and  well- 
instructed,  soon  rewarded  their  zeal.  They  were  placed 
under  the  care  of  a  secular  priest,  and  xhen  one  of  the 
Jesuits  returned  to  Santiago,  while  others  proceeded  by 
invitation  of  the  Bishop  to  Cordova,  and  Father  Monroy 
and  a  lay  brother  preached  with  great  success  to  the 
nation  of  the  Omaguacas.  They  were  a  fierce  and  in- 
domitable people,  who  had  twice  destroyed  the  town 
of  Jujuy,  and  proved  themselves  on  many  other  occa- 
sions the  dangerous  and  untiring  foes  of  the  young  colo- 
nies of  Spain.  But  when,  after  infinite  trouble,  Father 
Monroy  had  succeeded  in  inducing  them  to  enter  into  a 
treaty  of  peace  with  the  latter,  he  had  the  vexation  of 
finding-  his  exertions  made  worse  than  useless  by  the 
folly  of  the  Spaniards,  who  enticed  two  of  their  caciques 
into  the  town,  and  immediately  threw  them  into  prison. 
They  were  released  at  last  on  the  earnest  expostulations 
of  Monroy ;  but  he  could  not  prevent  the  natural  dis- 
trust which  took  possession  of  the  Indians,  and  feeling- 
indeed  too  certain  that  it  would  be  impossible  to  keep 
them  in  the  practice  of  the  precepts  of  Christianity, 
when  Christians,  alas !  were  themselves  ever  ready  to 
corrupt  them  by  example,  or  to  irritate  them  by  cruelty, 
lie  led  the  whole  tribe  to  a  spot  nearer  Tucuman,  where 
he  delivered  them  to  the  care  of  a  secular  priest,  while 
he  himself  returned  to  the  mission. 

The  Jesuits  were  received  at  Assumption,  the  chief 
city  of  Paraguay,  with   as  much  joy  and  gratitude  m 


CH.  I.]  SPANIARDS  AND  INDIANS.  9 

had  greeted  them  at  Santiago ;  and  there  Father  Sa- 
lonio  commenced  a  mission,  while  Fild  and  Ortega 
embarked  upon  the  Paraguay  for  the  country  of  the 
Guaranis.  These  people  were  not  perhaps  absolute 
idolaters,  since  Charlevoix  assures  us  that  they  acknow- 
ledged but  one  God;  however,  their  notions  on  the 
subject  were  extremely  vague  and  uncertain,  and  they 
neither  offered  .sacrifice  nor  possessed  any  established 
form  of  worship.  They  dwelt,  for  the  most  part,  in  the 
province  of  Guayra,  which  is  fertile  though  unhealthy, 
and  abounds  in  serpents,  vipers,  and  other  formidable 
and  disgusting  reptiles.  The  Fathers  penetrated  into 
its  most  hidden  depths  and  wildest  fastnesses,  and  then 
went  back  to  Assumption  to  tell  their  Superior  that 
they  had  seen  two  hundred  thousand  human  beings, 
who,  with  a  little  care  and  trouble,  might  speedily  be 
gathered  into  the  fold  of  Christ.  They  found  the 
plague  raging  in  the  capital  on  their  return ;  but  this 
circumstance  only  gave  fresh  impetus  to  the  zeal  of  the 
Jesuits,  who,  not  content  with  their  labours  for  the 
Spaniards,  went  fearlessly  among  the  Indians,  and  had 
the  happiness  of  bringing  hundreds  of  dying  creatures 
to  the  knowledge  of  the  true  God  in  the  very  hour  of 
their  entrance  upon  eternity.  Grateful  for  the  charity 
with  which  at  every  risk  to  themselves  the  Jesuits  had 
lavished  assistance  upon  them  in  their  utmost  need,  the 
Spaniards  now  showered  unasked-for  favours  upon  them, 
besides  building  a  house  and  church  for  the  society 
both  at  Villa  Iiica  and  Assumption.  So  great  was 
the  enthusiasm  at  the  latter  place,  that  the  inhabitants 
of  the  colony  all  vied  with  each  other  in  lending  a 
helping  hand;  women  of  the  highest  rank  brought  their 
riches  and  their  jewels,  the  poor  bestowed  their  labour 
without  payment,  and  when  the  Fathers  besought  them 
to  moderate  their  zeal,  they  only  answered,  that  as  they 
were  working  for  Jesus  Christ,  they  could  not  be  afraid 
of  doing  too  much. 

In  fact,  they  had  ample  cause  for  gratitude  to  the 
Fathers.      It  was   not   alone   the   spiritual  assistance 


10  PARAGUAY. 

which  they  were  ever  ready  to  offer  to  all  alike,  whether 
among-  the  rich  or  poor,  hut  the  Spaniards  soon  dis- 
covered that  the  Jesuits  were  their  hest  defence  against 
the  resentment  of  the  natives,  when  their  own  cruel 
treatment  had  lashed  them  into  rebellion.  Thus  when 
a  troop  of  Spaniards  had  suffered  themselves,  while 
marching-  ag-ainst  a  party  of  revolted  Indians,  to  be 
decoyed  into  a  deep  defile  where  they  were  completely 
at  the  mercy  of  their  foes  who  were  in  possession  of 
the  heights,  Father  Barsena,  who  had  been  journeying 
under  their  escort,  came  at  once  and  effectually  to  the 
rescue.  Alone  and  unaided  he  sought  the  encampment 
of  the  savag*es,  climbed  the  rocky  ascent  from  whence 
they  were  preparing-  to  rush  down  upon  his  countrymen, 
and  spoke  to  them  with  so  much  force  and  elocpience, 
that  he  induced  them  to  suffer  the  Spaniards  to  pass 
without  further  molestation.  This  success  appears  to 
have  given  a  new  direction  to  his  zeal;  for  separating 
himself  from  his  countrymen,  he  remained  for  some  time 
preaching  to  these  people,  who,  fierce  by  nature,  and 
doubly  fierce  by  their  habits  of  intoxication,  yet  listened 
to  him  with  respect,  and  thus  received  the  first  germs 
of  religion  which  with  time  were  to  develop  into  per- 
fection. From  their  tribe  he  passed  on  to  the  nation 
of  the  Lulles,  and  from  thence  to  the  Red  River,  where 
being  joined  by  other  missionaries,  he  was  recalled  in 
consequence  of  his  great  age  and  infirmities  to  Cuzco, 
in  Peru.  The  last  of  the  Incas  lay  dying  in  that  city 
— dying,  it  may  be,  less  of  actual  disease  than  of  his 
crown  despoiled,  his  kingdom  taken,  his  people  ruined, 
and  his  country,  enslaved.  Such  a  conversion  would  be 
a  fitting  crown  and  conclusion  to  an  apostleship  of  life- 
long labour  in  the  land ;  so  the  aged  Father  thought ; 
and  his  zeal  kindling,  he  sought  out  the  dethroned 
and  dying  monarch,  spoke  to  him  of  the  Christian's 
God  and  the  Christian's  hope  of  heaven  with  all  the 
fervour  and  unction  of  a  saint  in  his  novitiate,  heard 
him,  at  length,  abjure  the  idolatry  of  his  fathers, 
poured  the  waters  of  baptism  on  his  brow,  received  his 


CH.  I.]  SPANIARDS  AND   INDIANS.  11 

parting'  breath,  and  having-  thus  procured  him  an 
eternal  crown  in  place  of  the  temporal  one  of  which  his 
own  white  nation  had  deprived  him,  went  home  him- 
self to  die. 

A  little  while  previous  to  these  events,  Father  Ro- 
mero had  been  appointed  provincial ;  and  after  preaching" 
for  some  time  in  and  about  the  city  of  Assumption,  and 
from  thence  to  Cordova  and  Santa  Fe,  he  advanced,  in 
company  of  a  Spanish  gentleman  named  Jean  de  Abra, 
into  the  country  of  the  Diaguites ;  a  people  who  adored 
the  sun,  offering*  in  its  honour  feathers  which  they  had 
previously  consecrated,  according-  to  their  fashion,  by 
dipping-  them  in  blood.  The  Father  was  received  with 
much  cordiality  until  a  certain  day,  when  he  was  inter- 
rupted in  his  preaching'  by  a  band  of  hostile  savages, 
painted  and  adorned  after  the  manner  they  adopt  when 
about  to  enter  on  the  trial  and  torture  of  a  captive.  In 
all  probability  they  hoped  to  inspire  terror ;  but  they  had 
mistaken  their  man.  Father  Romero  merely  interrupted 
his  discourse  for  a  moment,  to  command  the  new  comers 
to  bow  down  in  adoration  of  the  living*  God,  who,  as 
their  Creator,  had  a  right  to  exact  such  homage  from 
them.  His  intrepidity  probably  saved  his  life;  and 
instead  of  the  attack,  which  had  evidently  been  medi- 
tated, the  Indian  chief  merely  declared,  in  a  tone  of 
haughty  defiance,  that  the  white  men  might,  if  they 
pleased,  degrade  themselves  in  such  manner;  but  that 
neither  he  nor  his  people  would  stoop  to  such  dishonour, 
and  would  still  continue  to  worship  according*  to  the 
traditions  of  their  fathers. 

After  this  protest  against  the  Christian's  creed  the 
savages  withdrew,  leaving  Romero  and  his  companion 
in  hourly  expectation  of  a  rising,  to  which  they  would 
infallibly  have  fallen  victims;  but  after  a  night  passed 
in  prayer  and  preparation,  to  their  great  astonishment, 
the  angry  chief  made  his  appearance  to  apologise  for 
his  conduct  of  the  evening  before,  and  to  promise  in  his 
own  name  and  that  of  his  nation  greater  docility  for  the 
future.     In  fact,  that  very  day  upwards  of  a  thousand 


12  PARAGUAY. 

Indians  accepted  Christianity ;  and  all  was  proceeding' 
well,  when  the  avarice  of  the  colonists  once  more  nearly 
mined  the  mission  of  the  Fathers;  for,  hearing-  that  the 
Tribe  had  solicited  baptism,  and  fancying-  that,  because 
they  were  willing-  to  embrace  Christianity,  they  were 
likewise  willing-  to  become  their  slaves,  they  attempted 
to  distribute  some  of  them  encomienda;  and  the  In- 
lians,  indig-nant  and  surprised,  at  once  revolted,  declar- 
ing- that  Christianity  was  a  snare  and  a  pretence ;  and 
that  the  Spaniards  merely  sent  their  priests  before  them 
r.o  reconnoitre,  in  order  that  they  themselves  might  ul- 
timately step  in  and  possess  themselves  of  the  land. 
■''But  it  never  shall  be  so!"  they  cried:  " rather  than 
submit  to  slavery  and  the  white  man's  prison,  we  will 
fall  upon  these  black-robes  and  tear  them  to  pieces  as 
traitors  and  seducers."  And  so  indeed  they  would  have 
done,  had  not  an  old  savage,  who  had  attached  himself  to 
the  Fathers,  succeeded  at  last  in  calming-  the  tumult ;  and 
th.?  first  effervescence  of  popular  feeling-  over,  Romero 
had  no  difficulty  in  making*  them  comprehend  the  dis- 
interestedness of  his  own  intentions  towards  them,  and 
his  freedom  from  every  thing-  like  collusion  with  the  colo- 
nists. He  concluded  by  giving-  them  a  solemn  promise, 
that  the  relig-ion  which  he  preached  should  never  be 
made  a  pretext  for  depriving-  them  of  liberty — a  promise 
afterwards  nobly  to  be  redeemed  by  the  Society  to  'which 
he  belong-ed ;  b  it  at  what  cost  to  its  members  and  its 
own  reputation  thn  \story  will  sufficiently  make  mani- 
fest. 


13 


CHAPTER  II. 

SEARCH  FOR  SOULS. 

The  Jesuits  oppose  the  enslaving  of  the  natives.  Appeal  to  the 
king.  Manifesto  of  the  Fathers.  Rapacity  of  the  colonists. 
The  first  "  reductions,"  and  the  first  martyrs.  Renewed  con- 
tentions. Second  appe.il  to  the  home  government,  which  sup- 
ports the  Jesuits.     Expulsion  of  the  Fathers  from  Assumption. 

The  favour  which- the  Spaniards  had  hitherto  displayed 
towards  the  Jesuits  was  chiefly  owing  to  the  marvellous 
ii.fi uence  every  where  exerted  by  these  apostolic  men 
over  savages  who  had  hitherto  resisted  both  force  and 
persuasion.  It  was  a  favour  selfishly  bestowed  for  the 
sake  of  the  benefit  which  they  hoped  it  would  confer  on 
themselves,  and  just  as  selfishly  withdrawn  the  moment 
they  found  that  the  benefit  they  sought  would  be  abso- 
lutely and  unconditionally  denied  them  by  the  Fathers. 
Up  to  the  moment  of  the  settlement  of  the  latter  at 
Assumption,  the  colonists  had  reckoned  with  confidence 
rpon  their  assistance;  first  for  taming-  the  natives,  and 
then  for  (hawing-  them  into  the  slavery  of  the  enco- 
n.ienda.  But  they  little  knew  the  men  with  whom 
tl  ey  had  to  deal,  or  the  spirit  that  guided  the  Chris- 
tian missionary.  Themselves  for  the  most  part  soldiers 
of  fortune,  they  could  not  forgive  the  boldness  which 
stepped  between  them  and  their  prey ;  and  blinded  by 
avarice  and  intoxicated  with  success,  they  could  as  little 
perceive  the  wisdom  of  a  course  which,  if  followed  out 
according  to  the  suggestions  of  the  Jesuits,  would  have 
given  to  Spain  a  new  race  of  subjects,  and  to  her  co- 
lonies servants  instead  of  slaves — friends  instead  of 
enemies,  more  terrible  in  their  desultory  warfare  than 
whole  armaments  of  civilised  foes.  For  although,  in- 
deed, the  savage  could  never  hope  finally  to  win  the 
day  against  the  might  and  power  of  Spain,  he  yet  could, 


14  PARAGUAY. 

and  often  did,  destroy  hundreds  in  his  unforeseen  attacks, 
and  his  blows  unhappily  fell  full  as  much  upon  defence- 
less women  and  children  as  upon  the  mailed  and  armed 
aggressors.  It  is  lamentable  to  be  compelled  to  acknow- 
ledge that  a  handful  of  men,  for  the  most  part  unedu- 
cated and  of  ill  repute  both  in  their  old  country  and 
their  new  one,  as  the  colonists  too  often  were,  should 
yet,  by  the  peculiarities  of  their  position,  have  been  able 
to  embarrass  at  least,  if  not  to  frustrate,  all  the  designs 
of  a  merciful  government,  and  all  the  efforts  of  the  Ca- 
tholic clergy,  who  alone  were  either  willing  or  able  to 
carry  them  into  execution.  Here,  however,  as  else- 
where, the  spirit  of  the  Church,  which  pleaded  for  the 
liberty  of  the  Indian,  found  itself  in  direct  antagonism 
to  the  spirit  of  the  world,  which  advocated  his  slavery  ; 
and  here,  as  elsewhere,  the  Church  has  been  blamed  tor 
what  the  world  has  done,  and  the  Jesuits,  who  acted 
only  on  her  inspiration,  have  been  accused,  in  the  for- 
mation of  their  Indian  congregations,  of  the  pride  and 
avarice  of  which  the  world,  represented  by  the  Spanish 
colonists,  was  actually  guilty  in  opposing  their  foun- 
dation. 

Peace,  even  in  outward  seeming,  could  not,  of  course, 
be  expected  long  to  subsist  between  parties  so  diametri- 
cally opposed  to  each  other;  the  one  being  ever  deter- 
mined to  oppress,  and  the  other  to  oppose  oppression. 
Father  Torrez  gave  the  first  offence  at  Cordova  by  re- 
fusing to  treat  the  Indians  employed  in  building  his 
church  as  slaves,  and  insisting  on  paying  them  at  the 
same  rate  and  in  the  same  way  as  European  workmen ; 
and  not  long  afterwards  Father  Loreneana,  in  the  city 
of  Assumption,  was  guilty  of  a  yet  graver  and  more 
unpardonable  misdemeanor  in  the  eyes  of  the  Spaniards. 
The  Indians  of  the  neighbouring  country  had  revolted; 
and  the  officer  sent  to  suppress  the  insurrection,  instead 
of  searching  out  the  real  offenders,  fell  upon  a  party  of 
defenceless  natives  who  had  taken  no  share  whatever  in 
the  rising,  and,  loading  them  with  chains,  drove  them  like 
wild  beasts  into  the  capital,  where  they  were  sold  pub- 


CH.  II.]  SEARCH  FOR  SOULS.  15 

licly  as  slaves.  It  was  not  in  the  nature  of  an  honest 
or  true-hearted  man  to  witness  such  a  scene  unmoved. 
From  the  slave-market,  where  he  had  seen  the  crea- 
tures for  whom  Jesus  Christ  had  shed  His  blood  put 
up  like  cattle  to  auction,  Father  Lorengana  came  burn- 
ing; with  indignation  to  the  church,  and  mounting  the 
pulpit  (he  had  already  tried  the  effect  of  private  expos- 
tulation in  vain),  denounced  the  injustice,  and  threatened 
the  vengeance  of  heaven  upon  the  offenders.  They 
heard  him  without  reply ;  the  boldness  of  the  net  for  a 
moment  silenced  all  opposition,  and  even  elicited  the 
applause  of  the  people ;  but  when  the  first  enthusiasm 
had  passed  away,  they  began  to  look  upon  it  with  other 
eyes ;  and  to  feel  that,  so  long  as  the  Jesuits  were  there 
to  oppose  them,  they  would  never  be  able  to  put  in 
execution  their  favourite  and  short-sighted  schemes  for 
the  acquisition  of  wealth,  by  enslaving  the  Indian  nations 
in  the  fullest  and  most  unerpiivocal  sense  of  the  word. 

Little  cared  these  true  sons  of  Loyola,  however,  for 
the  persecution  which  they  had  thus  excited.  They 
might,  indeed,  and  must  have  felt  most  keenly  the 
difficulties  thrown  so  recklessly  in  the  way  of  the  con- 
version of  the  natives ;  but  for  themselves,  they  had 
done  their  duty,  and  could  with  confidence  leave  the 
result  to  Providence.  The  citizens  of  Cordova  rose 
against  them  in  a  body,  and  driven  first  from  that  city, 
and  then  from  Santiago,  they  retired  to  St.  Michael's 
without  other  regret  than  such  as  was  necessarily  oc- 
casioned by  the  interruption  of  their  mission.  At  the 
latter  town  they  were  received  with  kindness,  and  per- 
mitted to  found  a  college  and  preach  to  the  neighbour- 
ing nations;  but  even  there  they  could  not  entirely 
check  the  rapacity  of  the  Spaniards,  and  they  had  too 
often  the  misery  of  seeing  the  poor  Indians  carried  off, 
while  they  were  in  the  very  act  of  preaching  to  them, 
to  be  sold  in  the  slave-market.  Such  a  state  of  things 
was  not  to  be  quietly  endured  by  really  Christian  men, 
and  much  less  "by  really  Christian  priests.  They  ap- 
pealed to  the  home  government ;  the  King  of  Spain  an 


16  PARAGUAY. 

swered  by  a  letter  which  did  equal  honour  to  his  head 
and  his  heart.  In  it  he  declared,  "that  the  only  yoke 
he  intended  for  the  natives  was  the  yoke  of  Jesus  Christ; 
for  he  wished  to  have  subjects  and  not  slaves ;  to  rescue 
the  Indians  from  the  slavery  of  their  own  passions,  not 
to  subject  them  to  those  of  other  men ;  and  therefore, 
except  in  the  event  of  aggression  on  their  parts,  he 
positively  forbade  any  save  the  missionaries  from  at- 
tempting to  reduce  them,  since  they  alone  could  do  so 
in  the  name  of  Jesus  Christ,  and  in  the  spirit  of  the 
Christian  religion." 

Upon  the  receipt  of  this  letter,  both  the  governor 
and  the  Bishop  of  Paraguay  resolved  to  put  every 
future  attempt  at  the  conversion  of  the  Indian  tribes 
entirely  into  the  hands  of  the  Jesuits,  who  had  all  along 
proved  themselves  such  fearless  and  zealous  advocates 
of  the  cause  of  freedom.  Joseph  Cataldino  and  Simon 
Maceta were  the  Fathers  named  for  this  expedition;  but, 
true  to  the  principles  adopted  by  their  order,  they  would 
not  leave  the  city  of  Assumption  without  publicly  de- 
claring their  determination  to  oppose  henceforth,  in  the 
king's  name,  and  at  any  cost  to  themselves,  every  at- 
tempt upon  the  liberty  of  their  converts.  "We  will 
make  them  men  and  Christians,''  they  said,  "  but  never 
slaves.  They  are  not  a  conquered  people,  and  therefore 
you  have  not  even  a  conqueror's  claim  upon  them.  It 
is  permitted  neither  to  you  to  deprive  them  of  their 
freedom,  nor  to  us  to  be  accessory  to  the  fact.  The 
law  of  God  and  the  law  of  nations  alike  forbid  it,  and 
therefore  we  will  not  do  it ;  but  what  we  can  and  ought 
to  do,  that  we  promise  we  will  do.  We  will  show  them 
the  beauty  of  peace  and  order ;  we  will  teach  them 
that  the  abuse  of  liberty  is  the  worst  of  slaveries ;  we 
will  make  them  comprehend  the  advantages  of  living 
beneath  a  well-ordered  government,  and  we  hope  to  see 
the  day  when  these  poor  savages  will  learn  to  bless  the 
hour  in  which  they  adopted  the  religion  of  Jesus  Christ, 
and  became  the  servants  and  subjects  of  a  Christian 
nxnarch." 


CH.  II.]  SEARCH  FOR  SOULS.  1? 

Just  and  noble  as  were  these  sentiments,  they  found 
no  echo  in  the  bosoms  of  the  men  to  whom  they  were 
addressed;  and  then  the  Jesuits  went  yet  further.  They 
pressed  upon  their  consideration  the  slower  but  much 
more  certain  advantages  to  be  derived  from  the  system 
they  wished  to  pursue.  They  asked  what  hud  become 
of  the  thousands  of  Indians  who  had  disappeared  since 
the  discovery  of  Paraguay;  and  while  they  proved  that 
the  fearful  mortality  which  had  swept  them  from  the 
face  of  the  earth  could  be  attributed  only  to  the  in- 
human manner  in  which  they  had  been  overtasked  and 
overburdened,  they  touched  on  the  improbability  of  the 
conquerors  being  able  to  keep  the  land  in  cultivation,  if 
the  conquered  were  no  longer  in  existence  to  till  the 
soil. 

But  it  was  all  in  vain.  They  were  speaking  to  men 
hardened  by  avarice,  and,  by  the  very  pursuit  to  which 
they  had  devoted  themselves,  narrow-minded  and  short- 
sighted even  as  respected  their  OAvn  interests ;  and  feel- 
ing that  all  their  arguments  were  thrown  away,  the 
Fathers  at  length  resolved  upon  prosecuting  their  mis- 
sion elsewhere,  and  by  assembling  the  Indians  in  distant 
villages  to  guide  them  to  civilised  life  and  to  God,  far 
from  the  interference  and  bad  example  of  their  country- 
men. They  left  Assumption  for  the  purpose ;  but  the 
report  of  their  undertaking  went  every  where  before 
them,  and  by  the  time  they  reached  Villa  Rica  the  fer- 
ment was  at  its  height.  Not  a  man  in  all  that  city 
could  be '  found  to  guide  them  on  their  way ;  and  a 
cacique  of  the  tribe  they  were  going  to  visit  having 
come  into  the  city  for  the  purpose  of  doing  so,  he  was 
thrown  into  prison,  whence  he  was  not  liberated  until 
threat  as  well  as  remonstrance  had  been  employed. 
Then,  and  not  until  then,  the  Fathers  proceeded  on 
their  way.  Sailing  down  the  Paranapane  (or  "  river  of 
misfortune,"  as  it  is  called  in  the  Indian  language),  they 
reached  at  length  the  spot  where  the  Pirapa  discharges 
itself  into  its  cedar-shudowed  waters,  and  there  they 
found  two  hundred  Guaranis  Christians,  fruits  of  the 


18  PARAGUAY. 

former  mission  of  Fathers  Ortega  and  Fild.  Advanc- 
ing a  little  further  up  its  banks,  they  came  upon  rip- 
wards  of  twenty  other  villages,  some  already  Christian- 
ised, and  others  well  disposed  to  receive  the  faith.  To 
them  the  Fathers  represented  the  advantages  of  dwelling* 
in  community,  as  well  for  the  greater  facilities  thus 
acquired  for  instruction,  as  for  the  better  protection  of 
their  liberty  against  both  colonists  and  heathen  natives 5 
and  they  had  actually  agreed  upon  joining  the  above- 
mentioned  Guaranis,  in  order  to  form  one  settlement 
with  them,  when  it  was  discovered  that  a  Spaniard  who 
had  followed  the  Jesuits  by  way  of  aiding  in  their 
labours  had  secretly  decamped,  carrying  with  him  for 
the  slave-trade  many  women  and  children  belonging  to 
the  tribe.  It  is  easy  to  imagine  the  indignation  of  the 
poor  Indians ;  for  they  naturally  concluded  that  the  Je- 
suit Fathers  were  implicated  in  the  transaction,  and  the 
latter  had  much  difficulty  in  vindicating  themselves 
from  so  injurious  a  suspicion.  Indeed,  it  is  most  won- 
derful how  they  ever  acquired  the  confidence  of  the 
Indians,  identified  as  they  were  both  by  blood  and 
language  with  men  who  had  no  god  but  gold,  no  law 
but  their  own  interests,  no  mercy  in  war,  no  truth  or 
even  justice  when  at  peace.  God  alone  could  vindicate 
His  Church  amid  such  deeds  of  treachery  ;  and  that  He 
did  so  is  most  certain ;  for  the  poor  natives  learned  at 
length  to  discriminate  between  the  Spaniards  and  their 
pastors,  and,  while  they  loathed  and  feared  the  one,  to 
trust  entirely  and  to  love  the  others.  The  storm  which 
the  wickedness  of  the  runaway  Spaniard  had  raised 
died  gradually  away,  and  with  an  admirable  faith  in  the 
fair  dealing  of  the  Fathers,  the  Indians  allowed  them- 
selves to  be  conducted  to  the  spot  where  the  other 
Guaranis  were  already  assembled.  It  was  the  first  of 
those  Christian  congregations  which,  under  the  name 
of  t  reducciones,'  or  '  reductions,'  gave  so  many  true- 
hearted  children  to  the  Catholic  Church,  and  so  many 
faithful  vassals  to  the  crown  of  Spain  :  it  was  called 
1  Loreto/ — fitting  name  for  an  establishment  destined 


CH.  II.]  SEARCH  FOR  SOULS.  19 

to  be  the  nursing-cradle  of  the  faith  of  Christ  in  a  land 
where  as  yet  no  knee  had  ever  bowed  to  do  homage  to 
His  name. 

The  fame  of  this  young-  city,  and  of  the  wisdom 
and  mercy  with  which  it  was  governed,  soon  spread 
abroad  among  the  tribes;  and  Indian  after  Indian  Hocked 
into  it  for  protection,  until  it  grew  ^o  much  too  E-mail 
for  its  population,  that  the  priests  were  compelled  to 
found  consecutively  three  additional  settlements  for  the 
disposal  of  the  surplus.  Encouraged  by  this  success, 
they  threw  themselves  into  their  work  with  redoubled 
energy,  straining  every  nerve  to  gather  the  heathen 
yet  more  and  more  entirely  into  their  new  foundations. 
They  searched  the  land  from  north  to  south;  in  the 
day-time  fainting  beneath  the  ardours  of  a  tropical  sun, 
and  at  night  tormented  almost  to  madness  by  the  mos- 
quitoes, and  crowds  of  nameless  stinging  insects  which 
that  warm  and  humid  atmosphere  brings  forth.  Now 
they  wandered  singly,  or  in  pairs,  over  wilds  and  deserts, 
where  they  were  liable  to  become  the  prey  of  ferocious 
cannibals  or  ravenous  wild  beasts.  Anon  amidst  forests 
swarming  with  poisonous  reptile  life,  and  where  vege- 
tation grew  so  rank,  that,  hatchet  in  hand,  they  had  to 
cut  their  way  through  the  dense  and  tangled  masses 
which  every  where  obstructed  their  steps,  and  veiled 
the  very  light  of  heaven  above  their  heads  —  in  a  coun- 
try too  where  earthquakes  are  of  everyday  occurrence, 
and  hurricanes  so  terrible,  that  the  mightiest  monarch 
of  the  forest  falls  prostrate  beneath  their  fury ;  where 
the  lightning  blinds  by  a  vividness,  and  the  thunder 
rolls  with  a  continuity  of  sound,  of  which  we,  the  chil- 
dren of  a  more  temperate  climate,  can  form  but  a  faint 
conception ;  and  where,  in  the  rainy  season,  such  floods 
pour  down  from  the  skies,  and  the  rivers  rise  so  sud- 
denly, that  travellers  in  those  days  were  often  up  to 
the  waist  in  water,  or  compelled  to  take  refuge  in  some 
lofty  tree,  or  to  sleep  on  the  mud  which  the  retiring 
tide  left  bare. 

More  than  once  the  Fathers  narrowly  escaped  with 


20  PARAGUAY. 

their  lives  from  these  terrible  inundations.  Upon  one 
occasion,  we  are  told  that  Father  Ortega,  after  wading 
for  some  time  up  to  his  middle  in  water,  was  compelled, 
with  his  companions,  to  seek  safety  in  a  tree.  For 
three  nights  and  days  the  tide  continued  rising" ;  and 
they  suffered  first  from  hunger,  and  then  from  weak- 
ness and  exhaustion,  while  thunder  and  lightning',  and 
an  impetuous  wind,  which  never  ceased,  added  new 
and  appalling-  terrors  to  the  natural  horrors  of  their 
position.  The  wild  beasts  of  the  forest,  too,  came  flock- 
ing round  their  place  of  refuge ;  serpents  of  all  kinds, 
rattle-snakes,  and  vipers,  were  floating  on  the  waters; 
and  one  enormous  reptile  actually  coiled  itself  round  a 
branch  close  to  the  one  to  which  Father  Ortega  was 
clinging.  For  a  little  while  he  watched  his  fearful 
neighbour,  expecting  every  moment  to  be  devoured; 
however,  the  bough  most  fortunately  broke  beneath  its 
weight,  and  it  floated  away  in  a  different  direction. 
But  his  own  personal  perils  were  not  his  worst  anxiety; 
for,  in  the  hurry  of  their  first  alarm,  the  Indians  who 
accompanied  him  had  unhappily  chosen  a  tree  much 
too  low  for  safety ;  and  their  despairing  cries,  as  from 
time  to  time  they  were  forced  to  retreat  from  the  rising 
flood  higher  and  higher  still  among  its  branches,  came 
faintly  to  his  ears  across  the  raging  waters,  and  pierced 
his  heart  with  sorrow.  So  it  went  on  until  midnight 
of  the  third  day;  and  then  one  of  the  Indians,  swim- 
ming to  the  foot  of  the  tree,  besought  him  to  come  to 
the  assistance  of  his  countrymen,  most  of  whom  were 
dying.  The  Father  prepared  to  do  so;  but  he  first 
bound  his  poor  catechist,  who  had  no  longer  strength 
to  hold  on  by  himself,  to  the  strongest  bough  that  lie 
could  discover;  and  then  throwing  himself  into  the 
waters,  struck  out  for  the  tree  where  his  poor  com- 
panions were  expiring.  They  were  almost  at  their  last 
gasp  by  the  time  that  he  arrived,  and  only  clinging  to 
the  branches  by  a  hist  long  effort  of  desperate  exer- 
tion :  happily  lie  was  able  to  climb  into  the  tree;  and 
in  that  strange   and  perilous  position,  with   the  wild 


CH.  II.]  SEARCH  FOR  SOULS.  21 

winds  raging-  round  him,  and  the  stormy  waters  surg- 
ing- at  his  feet,  he  received  their  confession  of  faith, 
and  baptised  them  one  by  one ■  and  one  by  one,  with 
a  single  exception,  they  dropped  into  the  flood,  and 
were  seen  no  more.  Having  thus  done  his  duty,  as 
none  but  a  Catholic  priest  can  do  it,  he  returned  to  his 
catechist;  and  the  waters  soon  afterwards  retiring,  they 
were  able  to  pursue  their  way.  But  Ortega  bore  with 
him  a  trophy  of  that  glorious  day  in  a  wound,  which, 
as  it  never  healed,  became  a  source  of  suffering  and 
merit  for  him  to  the  last  day  of  his  life. 

Even  perils  such  as  these  were,  after  all,  far  less  ter- 
rible and  revolting  to  human  nature  than  those  which 
awaited  the  Fathers  who  undertook  to  preach  to  the 
cannibal  Indians.  The  four  reductions  already  founded 
had,  by  the  peace  and  comfort  which  reigned  among 
them,  become  objects  of  desire  to  all  the  other  tribes, 
and  one  of  these  applied  to  the  governor  for  pastors  to 
form  them  into  a  congregation.  They  were  notorious 
cannibals,  and  even  the  Bishop  hesitated  to  send  among 
them  any  of  the  few  missionaries  whom  he  could  com- 
mand, and  whom  he  felt  he  should  thus  be  devoting  to 
almost  certain  death,  without  any  adequate  success  to 
compensate  for  their  loss.  In  this  dilemma  the  governor 
sought  out  Father  Torrez,  and  told  him  that  he  had 
no  longer  any  hope  save  in  the  zeal  of  his  religious. 
He  was  answered  on  the  instant.  Torrez  assembled 
all  the  Fathers  in  the  college,  and  communicated  to 
them  in  a  few  words  the  fears  and  misgivings  of  the 
Bishop ;  then  fixing  his  eyes  on  Loreifbana,  the  rector, 
he  added,  "  My  Father,  as  the  Lord  once  said  to  Isaias, 
'whom  shall  I  send,  and  who  will  go?'"  Instantly, 
flinging  himself  at  the  feet  of  his  provincial,  the  rector 
answered  in  the  words  of  the  same  prophet,  "  Here  I 
am;  send  me."  Father  Torrez  raised  and  embraced 
the  grey-haired  man,  already  grown  old  in  the  labours 
of  the  mission ;  the  whole  city  was  in  admiration  of  his 
courage ;  and  accompanied  by  a  young  priest  of  the 
society,  who  was  only  too  happy  at  being*  permitted  to 


22 


PARAGUAY. 


join  him,  Father  Lorencana  set  out  on  his  perilous  en- 
terprise. 

They  built  themselves  a  hut  and  a  chapel,  the  walls 
.of  mud,  the  roofs  constructed  of  leaves  and  branches; 
and  there  they  took  up  their  abode  in  the  very  midst  of 
the  "  tolderias,"  or  wigwams,  of  the  cannibals  Whom 
they  were  sent  to  convert.  A  year  passed  slowly  on, 
and  save  certain  schemes  for  the  massacre  of  the  mis- 
sionaries, which  happily  were  discovered  in  time  to  be 
prevented,  nothing-  of  any  consequence  occurred.  Then 
the  conversion  of  two  chiefs  created  a  sensation  among-, 
the  people ;  a  woman,  with  her  daughter,  sought  bap- 
tism ;  but  her  husband,  against  whose  express  prohibi- 
tion she  had  acted,  sought  out  a  heathen  tribe,  and  in- 
duced them  to  attack  one  of  the  Christian  nations,  de- 
claring that  nothing  less  than  the  blood  of  the  last 
Christian  Indian,  served  in  the  skull  of  the  last  of  the 
Christian  priests,  could  satiate  his  revenge.  Happily 
his  ferocious  wish  was  never  to  be  gratified ;  the  Chris- 
tians were  successful  in  the  struggle  that  ensued,  and 
numbers  of  his  own  tribe  becoming  converts,  Lorencana 
removed  them  for  safety  higher  up  the  country,  where 
a  church  was  built  and  a  new  reduction  formed  under 
the  name  and  patronage  of  St.  Ignatius. 

It  was  the  fifth  in  order  of  foundation  ;  and  while 
Lorencana  was  engaged  in  its  completion,  Father  Gon- 
zales, after  working  wonders  among  the  Indians  resident 
on  the  banks  of  the  Parana,  undertook  to  ascend  the 
Uruguay  from^ts  mouth  to  its  source.  This  river,  of  a 
thousand  miles,  rises  as  a  tiny  rivulet  among,  the  Sierra 
do  Mar,  the  mountain  sea-range  of  the  kingdom  of  Bra- 
zil ;  and  under  the  name  of  Pellotas,  runs  for  a  consider- 
able distance  westward,  between  banks  of  massive  and 
high-pointed  rocks.  It  afterwards  assumes  the  name  of 
the  Uruguay ;  and  as  it  proceeds,  innumerable  smaller 
streams  swell  its  waters,  until  it  becomes  a  great  and 
mighty  river,  navigable  for  large  vessels  even  up  to  the 
Salto-grande,  or  great  fall,  which  lies  half-way  between 
the  Yuicui  and  the  Rio  Negro,  the  largest  and  most 


CH.  II.]  SEARCH   FOR  SOULS.  23 

important  of  its  tributary  streams.  Upon  these  lonely 
waters  Gonzales  embarked  with  a  few  Indian  compa- 
nions to  act  as  guides ;  and  although  he  did  not  fully 
accomplish  all  that  he  had  undertaken,  nevertheless,  as 
it  so  frequently  has  happened  to  others  of  his  brethren, 
he  laid  open  a  vast  extent  of  unknown  country  to  the 
future  investigation  of  the  colonists.  The  province  called 
Tape,  situated  between  Brazil  and  the  Uruguay,  was 
the  chief  scene  of  his  labours.  The  Indians  of  this  dis- 
trict, who  were  a  branch  of  the  Guaranis  and  spoke 
•  their  language,  were  naturally  of  a  mild  and  gentle  dis- 
position ;  but  dwelling-  in  a  mountainous  country,  they 
possessed  all  the  love  of  freedom  inherent  in  moun- 
taineers. This  at  first  made  them,  unwilling-  to  listen, 
to  Gonzales ;  but  he  had  no  sooner  succeeded  in  con- 
vincing them  that  their  freedom  would  be  safe  in  his 
hands,  than  every  repugnance  at  once  vanished,  and 
they  nocked  in  crowds  to  hear  him.  Of  all  the  nations 
of  South  America,  they  proved,  in  fact,  the  most  docile 
in  their  reception  of  the  Gospel,  and  the  most  faithful  in 
their  adherence  to  it.  Their  reductions  became  so  nu- 
merous on  the  banks  of  the  Uruguay,  that  they  have 
given  their  name  to  all  the  other  Christian  establish- 
ments in  that  province;  and  thus  Father  Gonzales, 
with  the  loss  (as  it  happened)  of  no  other  lives  than 
his  own  and  those  of  his  two  companions,  first  explored 
this  vast  extent  of  country,  and  then  reduced  it  to  the 
dominion  of  the  Spanish  crown. 

Recalled  by  his  superiors,  he  was  obliged  for  a  time 
to  leave  the  new  reductions  to  the  care  of  his  two  com- 
panions ;  and  when  he  returned  in  the  following  year, 
it  was  only  (in  the  strictest  sense  of  the  word)  to  give 
his  life  for  the  flock  which  had  been  intrusted  to  his  care. 
The  reductions  were  attacked  by  a  party  of  pagans ; 
and  as  neither  he  nor  the  other  Jesuits  who  were  with 
him  would  consent  to  abandon  their  spiritual  children, 
they  were  killed  in  the  melee  which  ensued.  Another 
Father  was  soon  afterwards  sent  to  supply  their  place, 
and  he  also  was  stoned  to  death  by  the  same  Indians; 


24  PARAGUAY. 

but  this  time  the  murder  was  avenged ;  for  the  Chris- 
tian inhabitants  of  the  other  reductions  being  joined  by 
a  troop  of  Spanish  horse,  tog-ether  they  attacked  and 
defeated  their  savage  foes,  recovered  the  bodies  of  the 
martyred  Fathers,  brought  them  in  triumph  to  the  city 
of  Assumption,  and  there  interred  them  with  every  mark 
of  honour  and  respect. 

It  is  not  surprising  that  the  wonderful  facility  with 
which  their  reductions  had  hitherto  been  formed  should 
long  ere  this  have  suggested  to  the  Jesuit  Fathers  the 
idea  of  a  Christian  republic,  where,  far  from  the  dwell- 
ings and  evil  doings  of  the  colonists,  the  spirit  of  the 
primitive  Church  might  be  revived  among  the  fresh 
young  nations  of  the  newly-discovered  world.  Reason 
enough  they  had,  too,  for  wishing  to  remove  the  work 
in  which  they  were  engaged  out  of  the  reach  of  Euro- 
pean interference,  long  experience  having  taught  them 
that  it  was  absolutely  impossible  ever  thoroughly  to 
convert  the  natives  while  in  the  immediate  proximity 
of  their  Spanish  masters;  their  illegal  and  tyrannical 
claims  on  the  services  of  even  the  most  independent  of 
the  tribes,  their  cruelty  to  all,  their  crimes,  by  which 
they  gave  the  lie  direct  to  the  religion  they  professed, — 
any  of  these  singly  and  alone  would  have  been  sufficient 
reason  for  making  the  contemplated  separation;  but 
all  together  they  rendered  it  indispensable  to  success. 
Formal  application  had  already  been  made  to  Philip 
III.  of  Spain ;  and  following  the  example  of  his  prede- 
cessors, who  had  each  cast  the  weight  of  his  authority 
on  the  side  of  liberty  and  religion,  he  answered  the  re- 
monstrance with  a  rescript,  by  which  the  Jesuits  were 
authorised  not  only  to  preserve  their  converted  Indians 
from  the  yoke  of  the  encomienda,  but  also  to  with- 
draw them  entirely  into  congregations,  so  as  to  separate 
them  effectually  from  all  contact  with  the  settlers. 
The  mere  rumour  of  this  permission  was  quite  sufficient 
to  rouse  the  indignation  of  the  Spaniards ;  but,  secure 
in  their  good  intentions,  the  Jesuits  remained  firm,  and 
to  every  menace  and  accusation  only  answered,  that  with 


CH.  II.]  SEARCH   FOR  SOULS.  25 

the  Indians  already  in  the  possession  of  the  colonists 
they  would  not  interfere ;  for  they  were  painfully  con- 
vinced that  their  labours,  at  least  for  the  present,  would 
be  thrown  away  on  men  whom  evil  example  had  cor- 
rupted and  cruelty  made  desperate  ;  and  that  their  en- 
deavours would  be  best  bestowed  on  those  who  had 
either  never  yet  been  in  subjection  to  the  Spaniards,  01 
bad  flung*  it  off  altogether.  But,  reasonable  as  their 
answer  was,  it  could  not  satisfy  the  suspicions  of  the 
avaricious  settlers;  and  to  such  a  height  did  their  discon- 
tent arrive,  that  at  last  Francis  Alfaro  was  sent  as  visitor 
from  Spain  to  arbitrate  between  the  contending*  parties. 
He  approached  the  city  of  Assumption  by  water; 
and  as  his  bark  glided  through  the  devious  windings  of 
the  broad  and  silvery  Paraguay,  he  was  met  by  a  troop 
of  Christian  Indians.  Their  vessel  was  adorned  with 
gTeen  boughs  and  flowers,  and  they  came  perhaps  in 
the  hope  of  winning*  his  sympathy  and  protection  for 
their  people.  The  young  Indian  who  commanded  the 
party  paid  his  compliments  with  grave  self-possession 
and  respect,  and  invited  the  visitor,  who  was  accom- 
panied both  by  the  Governor  of  Paraguay  and  by  the 
Provincial  of  the  Jesuits,  to  finish  the  journey  in  his 
boat.  This  they  accordingly  did ;  and  on  reaching  the 
shore,  they  were  met  by  the  father  of  the  young  Indian 
chief,  who  was  himself  one  of  the  caciques  of  the  nation, 
and  who  brought  his  youngest  son,  a  boy  of  about 
two  years  old,  to  be  baptised  by  Father  Torrez.  The 
Spanish  visitor  kindly  accepted  the  office  of  godfather 
on  the  occasion,  a  much  easier  one  than  that  which  had 
brought  him  to  the  city  ;  for  the  practice  of  the  encowi- 
enda  had  worked  itself  into  such  a  system  of  abso- 
lute slavery,  that  not  even  the  authority  of  the  king, 
nor  the  representations  of  the  bishop,  nor  the  efforts  of 
the  governor  and  magistrates,  had  hitherto  been  able  to 
repress  it.  Nevertheless  Alfaro  did  his  duty  ;  and  after 
a  long  and  patient  investigation  of  the  circumstances  of 
the  case,  published  a  decree  by  which  the  enslaving  of 
the  Indians  was  peremptorily  forbidden;  but  the  oppo- 
sition to  this  decision  was  of  so  violent  and  of  so  threat- 


26  TARAGUAY. 

ening*  a  nature,  that,  for  a  time  at  least,  he  was  obliged 
to  modify  it,  by  permitting-  the  enforced  labour  of  the 
Indians  for  the  space  of  one  month,  on  condition  of  their 
receiving-  proper  and  equitable  wages  during*  the  rest  of 
the  year.  Very  unwilling-  was  he  to  make  even  this 
concession  •  and  he  took  care  to  adhere  to  the  terms 
of  the  royal  rescript,  by  excepting*  from  its  operations 
all  such  Guarani  and  Guaycuru  Indians  as  had  been 
already  converted,  or  should  hereafter  be  converted  by 
the  Jesuits.  He  also  wished  to  assig*n  to  the  latter  the 
same  salary  as  was  usually  given  to  the  secular  priests  j 
but  Father  Torrez,  considering*  it  too  much  for  religious, 
refused  to  accept  of  more  than  a  fourth  part  of  the  sum. 
This  disinterestedness  won  him  a  short-lived  popularity 
among*  his  countrymen  •,  but  it  passed  away  as  suddenly 
as  it  had  appeared ;  and  Aliaro  had  scarcely  turned  his 
back  upon  the  city  ere  its  inhabitants  rose  and  expelled 
the  Jesuits,  as  the  authors,  or  at  least  the  originators,  of 
the  decree  which  had  galled  them  to  the  quick. 

Not  long*  afterwards,  however,  one  of  the  citizens, 
touched  with  remorse,  waited  on  the  governor,  and  in 
presence  of  nil  his  slaves,  whom  he  had  commanded  to 
accompany  him,  promised  not  only  to  adhere  faithfully 
to  the  conditions  prescribed  by  the  decree,  but  for  the 
future  to  treat  the  Indians  rather  as  his  children  than 
as  his  slaves  or  servants.  So  noble  a  recantation  of 
error  naturally  produced  a  reaction  in  public  opinion ; 
the  Jesuits  were  recalled  to  Santiago  and  Cordova  as 
well  as  to  Assumption,  and,  for  a  time  at  least,  the  poor 
natives  received  a  more  Christian  treatment  at  the 
hands  of  their  Spanish  masters.  It  was,  indeed,  but  a 
passing*  gieam  of  sunshine  in  the  midst  of  gathering 
clouds ;  but,  such  as  it  was,  the  natives  felt  that  they 
owed  it  entirely  to  the  firmness  with  which  the  Jesuits 
had  advocated  their  cause ;  and  little  wonder  was  it 
that  those  who  were  already  Christians  should  cling* 
with  even  greater  love  and  confidence  than  before  to 
their  holy  protectors,  or  that  those  who  yet  wandered 
unreclaimed  and  unconverted  should  earnestly  invite 
them  to  come  and  settle  among*  them. 


27 


CHAPTER  III. 

FIRST  FOUNDATIONS. 

Paraguay.  Character  and  habits  of  the  natives.  The  work  of  eon- 
version  and  civilisation.  Description  of  a  reduction.  Its  internal 
government.  Occupations  of  the  missionaries.  Regulations  as 
to  property  and  commerce. 

The  Paraguay,  or  the  "  crowned  river/'  which  is  the 
signification  of  the  word  in  some  of  the  Indian  dialects, 
rises  in  13£°  south  latitude ;  passing-  through  the  rich 
Brazilian  territories  of  north  Grozzo  and  Cuyaba,  it 
receives  the  Pilcomaya  and  the  Vermejo  on  its  way, 
waters  the  province  to  which  it  gives  its  designation  for 
a  -distance  of  six  hundred  miles,  and  then  loses  its  name 
and  identity  near  the  city  of  Corrientes,  in  the  waves  of 
the  Parana. 

Very  fair  and  fertile  is  the  land  which  lies  between 
these  sister  rivers.  The  wide  savannahs,  sheltered  by 
trees  and  watered  by  innumerable  rivulets,  are  of  as 
deep  and  emerald  a  green  as  the  pasture-lands  of  Eng- 
land; hills  and  gently  swelling  eminences,  bright  in 
every  variety  of  tint  that  forest-tree  and  flowering  shrub 
can  give  them,  now  slope  gently  down  into  smiling 
valleys,  or  gird  anon  the  still  deep  lakes  that  so  often 
come  like  a  beautiful  surprise  upon  the  traveller,  and 
shroud  them  from  all  save  the  blue  of  heaven  which 
lies  mirrored  in  their  bosom.  The  palm-tree,  with  all 
its  eastern  associations  of  grandeur  and  of  beauty,  lifts 
its  stately  head  upon  the  sultry  plains ;  there  too  the 
orange  yields  its  twofold  gift  of  fruit  and  flower,  and 
the  fig-tree  unfolds  its  dark-green  leaf,  and  offers  the 
thirsty  wayfarer  its  delicious  fruit,  without  price  or 
trouble ;  while  the  hills  are  every  where  clothed  with 
the  noblest  and  most  useful  trees  that  South  America 


28  PARAGUAY. 

can  boast.  The  algarroba,  equal  in  appearance  and 
value  to  the  British  oak,  and  the  lapacho,  said  to  be 
more  durable  than  either  ;  the  urand-ig-irac,  as  beau- 
tiful as  rosewood;  the  yerba-tree,  the  tatayiba,  or 
wild  mulberry;  the  palo  de  vivora,  which  in  its  rind 
and  juice  presents  an  infallible  cure  for  the  most  deadly- 
serpent's  bite ;  the  cebil  and  curupac,  excellent  for  the 
purpose  of  tanning- ;  the  aromatic  cinnamon ;  and 
then,  for  underwood,  the  white  flowering  acacia  ;  the 
paradise-tree  like  mountain  ash,  with  its  blossom  of 
exceeding-  frag-rance,  and  its  clusters  of  rich  amber 
berries ;  the  incense-tree,  yielding-  the  odour  of  the  pas- 
tilla,  the  palo  santo  with  its  sweet-scented  gum, — these 
and  a  thousand  others  make  thickets  of  bloom  and 
sweetness  under  the  more  lordly  forest-trees,  and  the 
passion-flower  twines  its  wreaths  from  bough  to  bough, 
and  many-coloured  parasites  deck  the  highest  trees 
with  flower  and  foliage  not  their  own,  and  the  delicate 
air-plant,  hanging*  from  solitary  rock  or  thunder-riven 
stump,  floats  along  the  breeze  and  fills  it  with  the 
odour  of  its  pendent  blossoms.  Creatures  beautiful  or 
dangerous,  or  both  together,  stalk  through  these  gor- 
geous woods ;  squirrels  leap  and  monkeys  chatter 
among  the  twisted  branches  5  the  puma,  vulgarly  called 
the  lion,  and  the  ounce,  or  tiger  of  South  America, 
crouch  in  its  lonely  jungles ;  and  every  form  of  reptile 
life  is  there,  in  its  moist  marshy  places,  from  the  deadly- 
rattlesnake  and  boa  constrictor  to  the  cobra  or  cule- 
bras  de  bejuco,  which  looks  so  like  the  tree  from  whence 
it  takes  its  name,  that  the  unwary  traveller,  mistaking 
it  for  a  withered  branch,  has  all  but  grasped  it  in 
his  hand  ere  he  discovers  his  fearful  error.  But  the 
woods  of  South  America  are  all  astir  with  animal  life  ■ 
and  it  would  take  pages  only  to  name  the  insects,  birds, 
and  reptiles  that  towards  evening  fill  the  air  with  a 
murmur  of  harsh  sounds,  until  it  almost  seems  as  if 
every  leaf  were  a  living  thing,  and  had  lifted  up  its 
voice  to  swell  the  discord.  Azaro  describes  no  fewer 
than  four  hundred  new  species  of  the  feathered  tribe 


CH.  III.J  FIRST  FOUNDATIONS.  29 

inhabiting-  Paraguay :  the  eagle  and  the  vulture  haunt 
its  cliffs ;  swans,  black  and  white,  and  red  flamingoes, 
bathe  themselves  in  its  limpid  waters ;  and  every  variety 
of  the  parrot  tribe,  from  the  cockatoo  to  the  paroquet, 
with  fire-flies  and  bright- winged  humming-birds,  glance 
like  living-  gems  among-  the  dark  foliage  of  its  forests. 

It  was  in  the  yet  untrodden  and  uncultivated  places 
of  this  fair  land  that  the  Jesuits  for  the  most  part 
settled  their  reductions;  and  in  the  year  1629  they 
had  already  succeeded  in  founding-  about  twenty-one ; 
some  in  the  province  of  Guayra,  or  on  the  banks  of  the 
Parana,  and  others  again  on  the  river  Uruguay ;  when 
the  appearance  of  a  new  enemy  in  Guayra  threatened 
to  undo  all  that  had  been  already  done,  and  to  drive 
back  the  converted  Indian  to  his  coverts,  with  a  yet 
fiercer  hatred  for  his  European  oppressors  burning  in 
his  bosom  than  had  ever  been  there  before. 

Instead,  however,  of  proceeding  at  once  to  this  dis- 
astrous era  in  their  history,  it  will  perhaps  be  interesting' 
to  the  reader  to  give  a  succinct  account  of  the  mode  in 
which  the  Jesuits  commenced  these  foundations,  and  of 
the  laws  and  regulations  by  which  they  afterwards 
moulded  them  into  civilised  societies.  It  has  been 
already  said,  that  from  first  to  last  the  obstacles  they 
had  to  contend  with  were  innumerable;  and  if  the  most 
insurmountable  arose  from  the  bad  conduct  and  rapacity 
of  the  Spaniards,  there  was  much  also  in  the  habits  and 
character  of  the  Indians  themselves  to  add  difficulty  to 
the  undertaking.  Unused  to  any  authority  save  the 
loose  rule  of  an  elected  chief,  whose  power  could  always 
be  eluded  by  removing  from  the  tribe ;  accustomed  to 
roam  without  restraint  the  woods  and  fastnesses  of  their 
mighty  land,  its  deserts  at  once  their  cradle,  their 
dwelling-place,  and  their  grave, — it  was  equally  difficult 
to  convince  them  of  the  advantages  of  a  settled  mode 
of  life,  or  to  accustom  them  to  the  habits  of  industry 
entailed  by  its  adoption.  Their  religion  was  of  the 
vaguest  kind ;  but  for  the  most  part  they  believed  in  a 
supreme  Deity  and  in  the  after-existence  of  the  soul ;  a 


•30  PARAGUAY. 

fact  sufficiently  proved  by  the  care  with  which  they 
left  bows  and  arrows  and  provisions  in  the  grave,  in 
order  that  its  occupant  might  be  able  to  supply  his  own 
wants  in  the  world  to  which  he  had  departed.  Their 
priests  were  called  u  maponos,"  and  were  usually  em- 
ployed also  as  physicians ;  but,  as  a  general  rule,  they 
had  no  external  form  of  worship;  and  while  some  among 
them  adored  the  devils  or  idols  which  they  called 
manacicas,  and  others  worshipped  the  sun  and  moon, 
all  were  superstitious,  consulting  the  songs  of  birds  and 
the  cries  of  certain  animals  as  auguries  to  guide  their 
conduct.  It  has  been  sometimes  said,  that  the  American 
savage  held  an  indistinct  tradition  of  the  redemption, 
believing  in  the  incarnation  of  one  who  should  fill  the 
world  with  miracles,  and  afterwards  ascend  into  heaven; 
but  how  far  this  idea,  if  they  had  it,  is  to  be  traced  to 
their  intercourse  with  the  Spaniards,  it  is  impossible 
now  to  ascertain. 

They  lived  chiefly  upon  fish,  roots,  honey,  and 
whatever  animals  they  could  snare  with  the  lasso,  or 
shoot  with  bow  and  arrows.  Hunting  was,  therefore, 
one  of  their  chief  occupations ;  while  war,  as  a  necessary 
consequence  of  their  being"  divided  into  innumerable 
small  tribes,  might  be  as  correctly  designated  their 
principal  amusement ;  and  the  prisoners  taken  on  these 
occasions  being  for  the  most  part  killed  and  eaten,  they 
united  the  natural  recklessness  of  the  savage  for  human 
life  with  the  fierce  thirst  for  human  blood  which  belongs 
exclusively  to  the  cannibal.  The  European,  therefore, 
who  went  unprotected  among  them  was  continually  in 
peril  of  that  fate,  the  most  revolting  of  any  to  the  mind 
of  man;  but  not  for  a  moment  did  this  consideration 
retard  the  footsteps  of  the  missionary,  or  shackle  the 
freedom  of  his  actions  for  the  conversion  of  souls. 
With  his  Breviary  for  his  only  treasure,  and  a  staff, 
headed  by  a  cross,  for  his  only  weapon,  sometimes  with 
a  few  converted  Indians  as  interpreters  and  guides,  at 
others  with  only  a  lay  brother  or  a  second  Jesuit  to 
bear  him  company,  he  set  forth  upon  his  mission.     His 


CH.  III.]  FIRST  FOUNDATIONS.  31 

food  was  roots  and  fruits,  or  a  few  liandfuls  of  maize, 
which  he  carried  about  his  person ;  his  bed  the  ground, 
or  a  slender  mat  to  protect  him  from  the  bites  of  the 
reptiles,  with  which  those  wild  places  abound ;  and  he 
had  to  climb  up  steep  and  rocky  mountains,  to  wade 
through  fens  and  pathless  morasses,  to  pass  as  best  he 
might  over  lakes  and  rapid  rivers,  or  to  cut  his  way 
through  miles  of  dense  primeval  forest,  before  he  could 
reach  the  savages  whom  he  wished  to  convert  and  save. 
As  he  drew  near  their  haunts,  various  and  ingenious, 
and  trying  alike  to  mind  and  body,  were  the  expedients 
by  which  he  endeavoured  to  assemble  them  around  him. 
Sometimes  taking  advantage  of  their  known  love  for 
music,  he  would  go  singing  through  the  woods;  and 
when  they  were  drawn  to  him  by  the  sounds,  the  pious 
canticle  would  be  exchanged  for  an  exhortation,  in 
which  he  set  forth  his  motives  for  coming  among  them, 
and  briefly  but  clearly  explained  the  principal  articles 
of  the  Christian  creed.  More  frequently,  however,  the 
Jesuits  drove  herds  of  cattle,  sheep,  or  goats,  sometimes 
across  two  or  three  hundred  leagues  of  country;  and 
this  plan  had  a  double  advantage  in  it ;  for  it  not  only 
enabled  them  to  lure  the  Indians  to  them  by  the  pro- 
spect of  plenty,  but  also  to  stock  the  settlement  and  to 
support  them  in  it  until  they  could  be  persuaded  to 
labour  for  themselves.  u  Give  us  to  eat,"  they  would 
often  cry,  "  and  we  will  stay  with  you  as  long  as  you 
like."'  And  in  order  to  be  able  to  do  so,  and  thus  to 
convince  them  of  the  advantage  of  living  in  community, 
the  Jesuits  found  it  necessary  both  to  supply  them  with 
food  in  the  first  instance,  and  by  hard  and  downright 
personal  labour  to  pi-ovide  for  their  wants  duiing  the 
course  of  the  next  year. 

Many  of  these  religious  men  had  been  born  to  wealth 
and  station  in  the  luxurious  cities  of  their  native  land, 
or  they  had  been  educated  in  the  haunts  of  science,  and 
had  won  applause  in  the  chairs  of  universities;  but  now, 
putting  aside  all  love  of  learning  and  all  thought  of 
comfort,  they  hesitated  not  to  make  themselves  seem 


32  PARAGUAY. 

poor  and  unlettered,  for  the  sake  of  Jesus  Christ  and 
their  love  of  souls  ;  and  so  they  set  to  work  in  earnest, 
cleared  the  forest,  ploughed  the  land,  sowed  barley, 
maize,  beans,  pulse,  hewed  down  mighty  trees,  and 
brought  them  for  building  purposes  to  the  settlement — 
in  one  word,  became  herdsmen,  masons,  carpenters, 
labourers,  hewers  of  wood  and  drawers  of  water,  while 
the  Indian  with  folded  arms  looked  gravely  on,  and  the 
Spaniards  openly  mocked  the  folly  of  an  undertaking 
which,  because  they  would  not  nobly  share  it,  they 
stupidly  chose  to  pronounce  impossible.  But  time 
went  on,  and  proved  the  right.  Example  was  powerful 
where  precept  must  have  foiled ;  and  when  after  har- 
vest-time the  savage  tasted  the  fruits  of  a  toil  which  he 
had  witnessed,  but  had  wisely  not  been  compelled  to 
share,  he  began  really  to  comprehend  something  of  the 
advantages  which  might  accrue  to  himself  from  a  settled 
scheme  of  life  and  labour.  From  that  moment  the 
work  of  civilisation  had  commenced ;  and  won  first  to 
order  and  then  to  God,  the  Indians  soon  took  their 
natural  places  in  the  colony  as  its  workmen  and  me- 
chanics, while  their  venerable  teachers  were  enabled  to 
return  once  more  to  their  own  vocation, — the  salvation 
of  souls.  The  first  care  both  of  pastor  and  of  people 
was  the  church,  which  in  the  beginning  was  built  of 
wood,  but  in  better  times  of  stone ;  and  though  at  first 
they  were  content  to  make  it  simply  decent,  they  were 
at  a  later  period  enabled  by  the  talents  of  their  neo- 
phytes to  render  it  magnificent — at  least  in  the  eyes 
of  those  for  whom  it  was  intended.  After  a  time,  in- 
deed, the  natives  became  themselves  the  best  artificers , 
and  among  the  statues  and  pictures,  often  royal  gifts, 
which  were  sent  from  Europe,  the  work  of  the  poor 
Indian  held  no  unhonoured  place  in  the  church  of  his 
own  reduction. 

The  form  of  the  village  which  in  time  grew  up 
around  this  sacred  building  was  alwa}rs  the  same,  the 
church  and  college  of  the  missionaries  forming  one  side 
of  a  large  square,  and  the  other  three  being  composed 


CH.  III.]  FIRST  FOUNDATIONS.  33 

of  Indian  huts  with  corridors  built  in  front  to  protect 
them  from  the  wind  and  rain.  From  every  comer  of 
this  square,  streets,  straight  and  uniform  in  appearance, 
diverged  in  right  angles ;  workshops,  storehouses,  and 
granaries,  being-  added  as  their  need  was  felt.  The 
burying- ground,  enclosed  by  a  wall,  and  planted  with 
palm,  cypress,  and  various  kinds  of  flowering*  shrubs, 
was  always  situated  near  the  church  ;  and  a  broad  walk, 
marked  out  by  oranges  and  citrons,  with  a  large  cross  at 
either  end,  and  one  in  the  centre  at  which  funeral  pro- 
cessions usually  halted  for  the  singing-  of  psalms,  led  to 
a  chapel,  where  Mass  was  said  every  Monday  for  the 
repose  of  the  dead.  Thus  constituted,  the  village  was 
surrounded  by  the  chacaras  or  plantations  of  the  Indian, 
while  in  and  every  where  about  the  settlement  were 
scattered  little  chapels,  for  the  purposes  of  processions, 
connected  with  the  church  and  with  each  other  by  broad 
avenues  of  pine-trees,  palm,  and  orange. 

When  once  the  mission  was  thus  founded  and  set 
a-going,  two  Jesuits  were  appointed  to  minister  to  its 
necessities ;  the  one  being  always  in  the  capacity  of  a 
parish-priest,  and  the  other  acting  merely  as  his  assist- 
ant. Each  of  them  was  chosen  in  the  first  instance  by 
his  own  superior,  who  presented  three  names  to  the 
governor,  the  latter  having  the  power  to  select  between 
them,  subject,  however,  to  the  acceptation  of  the  Bishop: 
but,  generally  speaking,  both  these  functionaries  waived 
their  legal  rights  in  favour  of  the  provincial,  who  might 
be  supposed  best  to  understand  the  qualifications  of 
his  subjects  for  the  particular  missions  upon  which  he 
was  about  to  send  them.  Nor  was  the  priest  thus 
chosen  absolute  even  in  the  fastnesses  which  he  was 
given  to  rule;  for  he  was  subject  to  the  superior  of 
the  missions,  whose  duty  it  was  to  visit  them  continu- 
ally, and  who  in  turn  was  placed  under  the  authority  of 
the  provincial. 

Both  the  Jesuit  Fathers  and  their  neophytes  like- 
wise acknowledged,  with  the  rest   of  the  faithful,  the 
jurisdiction  of  the  Bishop  in  whose  diocese  their  reduc 
D 


34  PARAGUAY* 

tion  happened  to  be  placed.  This  prelate  visited  them 
occasionally  for  the  purpose  of  administering-  Confirm- 
ation, and  would  more  frequently  have  done  so  had 
it  not  been  for  the  expense  and  difficulty  attendant  on 
such  journeys ;  having-  often  to  travel  for  the  purpose 
upwards  of  six  hundred  miles  throug*h  a  desert  where 
not  a  villag-e  or  dwelling-house  was  to  be  seen,  where 
too  he  had  to  carry  his  provisions  with  him,  and  to  elude 
the  attacks  both  of  cannibals  and  of  wild-beasts.  The 
neophytes,  indeed,  did  all  they  could  to  lig-hten  the  dif- 
ficulties of  his  visitation ;  they  often  sent  an  escort  to 
meet  him  and  guide  him  through  the  most  unfrequented 
passes ;  and  besides  furnishing-  him  with  provisions,  they 
have  been  even  known  to  lay  down  roads  in  order  to 
facilitate  his  approach.  It  was  high  festival- time  all 
during-  his  stay  among-  them  5  nor  were  the  Jesuit  Fa- 
thers less  rejoiced  upon  the  occasion,  it  having-  fre- 
quently happened  that  they  themselves  requested  and 
almost  insisted  upon  his  presence,  as  the  only  means  of 
clearing-  themselves  from  the  unjust  suspicions  which, 
as  years  went  on,  spread  so  far  and  sank  so  deeply  as 
to  be  often  found  even  in  the  highest  places  of  govern- 
ment, whether  ecclesiastical  or  lay.  With  whatever  feel- 
ings, however,  the  Bishop  himself  may  have  occasion- 
ally entered  the  reductions,  he  never  left  them  without 
sentiments  of  the  highest  admiration,  and  even  tears  of 
joy  and  gratitude  to  Almighty  God,  who  had  made  use 
of  the  Fathers  of  the  Society  of  Jesus  to  change  the 
poor  wanderers  in  woods  and  devourers  of  their  own 
kind  into  practical  Christians  and  good  and  useful  ser- 
vants of  the  state.  Nothing,  in  fact,  more  moderate  or 
judicious  could  have  been  devised  than  the  systems  by 
which  these  results  had  been  brought  about,  nothing- 
more  calculated  to  promote  the  true  interests  of  the 
mother-country  by  the  peaceful  and  permanent  cultiva- 
tion of  the  new,  and  nothing  certainly  more  likely  to 
ensure  the  true  liberty  and  conversion  of  the  Indian  him- 
self, who,  but  just  reclaimed  from  his  native  forest,  would 
have  been  unable  to  reap  the  full  benefit  of  the  civili- 


CII.  III.J  FIRST  FOUNDATIONS.  35 

sation  to  which  he  had  been  introduced  without  the 
slow  and  certain  guidance  of  a  Father's  hand. 

It  has  often  been  asserted,  indeed  it  is  almost  always 
presupposed  by  authors  inimical  to  the  Society,  that 
the  Jesuits  ruled  their  neophytes  without  any  reference 
to  the  imperial  power  of  Spain ;  yet  so  far  was  this 
from  being*  the  case,  that  the  Indians  to  a  man  acknow- 
ledged the  Spanish  monarch  as  their  sovereign,  and 
paid  a  settled  tribute  like  any  other  subjects.  The  sum 
was  indeed  small,  and  payable  only  by  those  who  had 
reached  their  twentieth  and  had  not  attained  their  fif- 
tieth year ;  but  the  trifling  nature  of  the  tribute  is  not 
to  be  ascribed  to  any  want  of  loyalty  on  the  part  of 
those  who  paid  it,  but  rather  to  the  clemency  of  the 
kings  of  Spain,  who  in  this  and  all  their  other  transactions 
with  the  reductions  invariably  showed  a  generous  and 
truly  royal  wish  to  facilitate  the  conversion  of  the  na- 
tives by  relieving  them  as  much  as  possible  of  the  burden 
of  dependence.  It  was  for  this  intention  likewise,  and 
at  the  especial  petition  of  the  Jesuit  Fathers,  that  he 
constituted  the  Indians  under  their  charge  his  own  im- 
mediate vassals,  by  which  means  he  freed  them  from 
the  cruel  and  ruinous  slavery  of  the  encomienda,  no 
Spaniard  haying  a  right  to  exact  personal  service  from 
any  one  holding  land  directly  under  the  authority  of 
the  crown.  Gladly  also,  when  that  system  had  been 
found  a  failure,  would  he  have  extended  the  same  im- 
munity to  the  other  Indians  of  the  country;  but  the  evil 
was  too  widely  spread  and  too  deeply  rooted  to  admit 
of  a  remedy  so  simple.  It  had  been  tried  and  had  failed 
already  in  the  hands  of  more  than  one  visitor  despatched 
by  the  court  of  Spain,  and  experience  proved  that  the 
Jesuits  were  right  from  the  very  outset;  and  that  it  was 
only  where  the  Indian  convert  could  be  kept  completely 
from  all  contact  with  the  colonist,  that  he  had  the 
slightest  chance  of  escaping  the  yoke  of  slavery. 

If,  however,  the  king  reaped  but  little  material 
wealth  from  the  actual  tribute  of  the  Indians,  he  found 
his  account  in  other  ways,  and  by  less  oppressive  means. 


36  PARAGUAY. 

They  always  held  themselves  in  readiness  to  do  him 
service ;  and  whether  for  public  works  or  for  war,  the 
governor  was  at  any  time  able  to  levy  from  them  bodies 
of  five  or  six  thousand  men,  who  during-  the  whole  period 
of  their  engagement  were  clothed  and  supported  by 
their  own  reductions,  without  costing*  the  government 
a  single  piastre. 

The  civil  government  of  the  reductions  was  carried 
on  by  native  officials ;  the  cacique,  corregidor,  and  al- 
caldes being-  always  chosen  from  the  Indians,  who  were 
found  to  submit  much  more  readily  to  a  power  which 
had  thus  the  appearance,  at  least,  of  having-  originated 
among-  themselves,  although,  of  course,  its  acts  and 
decisions  were  guided  and  overruled,  and  especially  in 
the  beginning,  by  the  Fathers  of  the  mission.  Of 
these  last  one  always  remained  in  the  village  for  the 
care  and  instruction  of  the  resident  neophytes ;  while 
the  other  made  excursions  into  the  country,  to  super- 
intend the  Indians  who  were  at  work  upon  the  plan- 
tations, and  to  instruct  such  as  were  hindered  by  this 
occupation  from  being-  present  at  the  public  catechising*. 
Attendance  upon  the  sick  was  also  one  of  the  most 
unceasing-  and  arduous  of  the  duties  of  both  priests ;  for 
newly  reclaimed  as  the  Indians  were,  and  unaccustomed 
to  the  habits  of  civilised  life,  they  were  not  only  more 
than  usually  predisposed  to  contract  disease,  but  every 
disease  told"  with  more  than  usual  certainty  upon  their 
enfeebled  constitutions; — once,  in  fact,  that  it  took  pos- 
session of  their  frames,  they  seemed  to  have  no  power 
to  resist  it.  Even  in  healthy  or  comparatively  healthy 
times,  there  were  always  from  two  to  three  hundred  sick 
in  any  reductions  which  contained  eight  thousand  souls ; 
but  if  fever  or  small-pox  (the  fatal  g-ift  of  Europe)  once 
set  in  among*  them,  every  home  became  filled  with  sick 
and  dying* ;  hundreds  were  swept  away  in  the  course  of 
a  few  hours,  and  there  have  even  been  not  unfrequent 
instances  of  the  total  depopulation  of  the  district.  On 
such  occasions  every  work  of  spiritual  or  corporal  mercy 
fell,  as  a  matter  of  course,  into  the  hands  of  the  priest. 


CH.  III.]  FIRST  FOUNDATIONS.  37 

Day  by  day,  and  one  by  one,  lie  visited  his  patients, 
each  being-  as  anxiously  cared  for  and  as  tenderly  con- 
soled as  if  there  were  not  hundreds  of  unfortunates 
around  him  who  were  all  to  be  the  recipients  of  the 
same  special  and  ungrudging  kindness.  It  was,  more- 
over, a  necessary  duty  of  the  priest  to  see  that  the 
dwellings  of  the  sick  were  kept  "with  due  regard  to 
cleanliness ;  their  food  and  medicine  were  prepared  at 
his  own  house,  often  even  administered  with  his  own 
hands ;  in  short,  he  had  to  watcli  over  the  sick,  to  pre- 
pare the  dying-  for  their  approaching  end,  and  not  unfre- 
quently  to  dig  their  graves.  Compassion  for  the  sick  was 
not  a  spontaneous  virtue  among  the  Indians ;  they  liad 
too  great  a  dread  of  disease  to  show  much  tenderness  to 
the  sufferer,  and  where  there  was  any  likelihood  of 
infection,  especially  where  there  was  even  a  suspicion 
of  small-pox,  they  almost  invariably  fled  the  spot ;  mo- 
thers deserting  their  very  children  rather  than  run  the 
risk  of  this  loathsome  malady.  Both  upon  the  civilised 
Indian,  therefore,  and  his  wilder  brethren  of  the  woods 
the  fearless  self-sacrifice  of  the  Jesuits  worked  with 
wonderful  effect ;  and  in  spite  of  their  terrors,  the  yet 
unconverted  savages  would  crowd  round  and  about  a 
pestilence-stricken  village,  watching-  the  deeds  of  a 
charity  such  as  had  never  been  seen  in  their  land  be- 
fore, and  which  often  won  them  to  the  faith  when 
prayers,  instructions,  and  exhortations  had  failed  of 
any  effect.  The  other  occupations  of  the  missionaries 
consisted  chiefly  in  performing  the  public  congrega- 
tional services,  saying  Mass,  catechising,  leading  the 
rosary  and  night-prayers,  giving  instructions  in  the 
several  schools  for  boys  and  girls,  superintending  the 
adults  in  the  workshops  and  plantations ;  all  which, 
with  close  and  frequent  attendance  in  the  confessional, 
not  only  filled  up  every  hour  of  the  day,  but  often 
trenched  deeply  on  those  of  the  night. 

Community  of  goods  had  been  established  as  a  first 
great  principle  in  the  scheme  of  the  reductions,  both 
because  it  brought  these  Christian  societies  into  a  closer 


38  PARAGUAY. 

conformity  with  the  primitive  Church,  and  also  because 
it  acted  as  a  salutary  check  upon  the  natural  indolence 
of  the  Indian,  who,  if  left  to  his  own  resources,  would 
soon  have  been  reduced  to  beggary ;  whereas  by  be- 
ing* made  answerable  to  the  commonwealth  for  the 
result  of  his  labours,  that  body  took  care,  for  its  own 
sake,  that  he  should  contribute  his  quota  to  the  general 
store. 

However,  the  Fathers  did  not  allow  this  rule  to  be 
carried  so  far  as  to  deprive  their  neophytes  of  that 
spur  to  industry  which  undoubtedly  exists  only  in  the 
possession  of  private  property.  To  every  Indian,  there- 
fore, was  assigned  a  piece  of  ground  for  his  own  especial 
cultivation;  and  as  he  held  it  rent-free  and  with  the 
sole  condition  of  his  }reariy  tribute  to  the  king,  he  was 
rich  just  in  proportion  to  the  diligence  with  which  he 
tilled  it.  At  the  commencement  of  the  sowing  season 
he  received  a  certain  allowance  of  seed,  with  the  obli- 
gation of  returning  exactly  the  same  quantity  after 
the  time  of  harvest :  a  pair  of  oxen  was  likewise  lent 
him  under  a  similar  stipulation  of  returning  them ;  this 
precaution  being  rendered  absolutely  necessary  by  the 
fact,  that  had  the  natives  considered  them  as  their  own 
they  would  infallibly  have  killed  and  eaten  them  in 
any  accidental  distress  that  might  have  occurred.  So 
great,  indeed,  was  their  natural  dislike  of  labour,  and 
their  propensity  to  supply  their  wants  by  the  readiest 
expedient  which  presented  itself  at  the  moment,  that  it 
was  found  necessary  in  the  beginning  to  appoint  over- 
seer,0 chosen  from  the  most  trustworthy  and  consci- 
entious of  the  Indians  themselves,  not  only  to  over- 
look the  labour  of  the  others,  but  also  to  see  that  the 
cattle  lent  them  were  neither  injured  by  over-work  and 
want  of  care,  nor,  as  has  been  already  said,  killed  to 
supply  the  exigences  of  a  day.  As  a  further  precaution 
against  poverty  or  waste,  a  large  portion  of  the  best 
and  most  fruitful  land  that  could  be  found  in  the  reduc- 
tion was  set  aside  to  be  worked,  under  the  direction  of 
steady  natives,  by  the  children  of  the  village,  who,  with 


CH.  III. J  FIRST  FOUNDATIONS.  39 

so  fertile  and  productive  a  soil,  could  easily  supply  by 
numbers  what  they  might  want  in  strength. 

This  plantation  the  Indians  called  tupambae,  or '  the 
possession  of  God/  because  its  produce  was  always  stored 
up  in  the  public  granaries,  from  whence  it  was  afterwards 
distributed  by  the  Jesuits  themselves  to  the  sick,  the 
orphan,  and  new  comers,  to  those  who  from  one  cause 
or  another  had  failed  in  their  own  harvest,  and  to  those 
who  by  the  nature  of  their  trade  were  incapacitated 
from  attending  to  tillage  themselves.  Out  of  this  fund 
were  likewise  paid  the  expenses  of  those  who  were  ne- 
cessarily absent,  either  on  the  affairs  of  the  colony  or 
by  requisition  of  the  king ;  for,  besides  the  large  bodies 
of  men  frequently  levied  for  the  service  of  the  latter, 
hundreds  of  Indians  were  compelled  to  reside  for  months 
at  a  time  in  the  Spanish  towns,  in  order  to  barter  their 
native  productions  for  the  merchandise  of  Spain.  With- 
out such  an  exchange  the  royal  tribute  could  hardly 
have  been  paid,  nor  could  the  cultivation  of  land  have 
proceeded  to  any  very  satisfactory  extent ;  for  Paraguay 
contained  no  mines ;  and  iron,  the  most  essential  of 
all,  being  imported  entirely  from  Spain,  was,  after  every 
effort  to  supply  the  deficiency,  so  scarce  and  so  dear  as 
considerably  to  retard  all  tillage  and  to  hinder  the  in- 
troduction of  many  manufactures  in  which  the  Indians 
would  otherwise  probably  have  excelled.  In  exchange 
for  these  articles,  and  others  almost  as  desirable  and 
useful,  the  natives  brought  Paraguay-herb, — a  leaf  em- 
ployed for  the  purposes  of  tea,  and  to  this  day,  under 
the  name  of  mate,  an  article  of  incessant  consumption 
in  South  America, — tobacco,  honey,  fruits,  hides,  furs, 
cotton,  sarsaparilla,  bark,  and  rhubarb;  the  medicinal 
qualities  of  the  two  latter,  which  are  indigenous  in 
Paraguay,  having  been  early  discovered  and  made 
known  by  the  Jesuits.  Hafts  constructed  for  the  pur- 
pose bore  these  and  other  productions  of  their  province 
down  their  mighty  rivers  to  Buenos  Ayres,  Santa  Fe, 
and  other  Spanish  towns,  where  factories  had  been  es- 
tablished by  the  different  reductions.     The  Indians  em- 


40  PARAGUAY. 

ployed  upon  this  service  were  absent  for  months;  and 
out  of  the  sums  thus  raised  they  purchased  every  thing- 
needed  by  their  reduction,  having-  first,  as  a  matter  of 
course,  paid  the  yearly  tribute,  which  was  always  de- 
livered at  the  capital  of  the  province  and  into  the  hands 
of  an  officer  appointed  for  the  purpose.  Of  this  tribute, 
however,  the  king-  could  in  reality  be  said  to  receive 
only  a  portion ;  since  out  of  it  he  not  only  paid  the 
salaries  of  such  missionaries  as  he  sent  to  America,  but 
likewise  set  aside  a  sum  for  the  purchase  of  drags 
for  the  reductions,  for  the  wine  and  oil  (both  broug-ht 
from  Europe,  and  expensive)  which  were  needed  in  the 
church,  as  also  for  a  bell,  and  all  the  sacred  vessels 
required  for  the  altar,  which  he  invariably  presented  to 
each  new  reduction. 

The  mercantile  arrangements  of  every  settlement 
were  necessarily  in  the  hands  of  the  Indians  themselves ; 
therefore,  after  reading,  writing-,  and  the  industrial  arts, 
the  children  were  always  carefully  taug-ht  accounts,  and 
instructed  in  the  value  of  money,  besides  receiving-  an 
insight  into  the  nature  and  amount  of  the  public 
revenue. 

In  the  beginning-  of  their  missions  the  Jesuits  found 
the  dialects  of  South  America  as  numerous  as  its  tribes; 
but  they  wisely  resolved  upon  employing-  only  one  lan- 
g-uag'e  as  a  mode  of  communication  throughout  their 
reductions,  and  having*  fixed  on  the  Guarani  for  the 
purpose,  it  was  taug-ht  in  all  their  schools,  and  has  thus 
become  the  lang-uag-e  of  the  country,  where  it  is  uni- 
versally spoken  to  the  present  day.  In  addition  to  this, 
the  children  were  taught  to  read  and  understand  Spanish, 
though  not  to  speak  it,  the  missionaries  fearing-  it  would 
promote  that  facility  of  intercourse  between  the  old 
race  and  the  new  which  they  had  found  by  past  experi- 
ence to  be  so  fatal  to  the  latter.  For  the  same  reason 
also  they  always  chose  out  wild  and  unaccustomed 
places  for  their  intended  mission ;  and  in  order  yet 
more  entirely  to  enforce  the  separation  of  the  nations, 
they  obtained  a  rescript  from  the  Spanish  monarch  by 


CH.  III.j  FTRST  FOUNDATIONS.  41 

which  all  Europeans  were  forbidden  to  visit  the  reduc- 
tions without  an  order  from  the  governor  or  the  bishop, 
or  to  remain  for  more  than  three  days.  Of  course  both 
these  functionaries  were  themselves  exempted  from  the 
effects  of  this  regulation,  which,  therefore,  could  have 
had  no  tendency  (whatever  has  been  pretended)  to  leave 
the  Jesuits  with  absolute  authority  over  the  reductions. 
It  simply  effected  what  they  intended,  which  was,  to 
restrict  the  intercourse  of  the  colonists  generally  with 
their  converts ;  but  with  all  their  care  and  caution,  they 
could  not  always  prevent  the  latter  from  being-  mal- 
treated or  misled  by  the  former;  nor  could  they  en- 
tirely obviate  the  scandal,  or  the  yet  worse  contusion 
between  vice  and  virtue,  which  residence  in  the  Spanish 
towns  sometimes  occasioned  in  the  minds  of  the  poor 
Indians.  "  How  can  you  tell  us,"  some  of  them  once 
exclaimed  to  their  missionary  on  their  return  from 
Buenos  Ayres,  "that  modesty  or  charity  are  offended 
by  such  and  such  an  action,  when  we  have  seen  white 
men  do  it  over  and  over  again  without  compunction  ?" 
"  Alas,  my  children,"  the  poor  Father  could  only  an- 
swer, "  I  can  but  tell  you  that  we  preach  to  the  white 
men  the  selfsame  doctrine  that  we  preach  to  you.  It 
comes  from  God,  and  is  therefore  as  unalterable  as 
Himself;  and  if  the  Spaniards  observe  it  not,  they 
must  give  account  at  the  tribunal  of  the  Sovereign 
Judge,  who  will  severely  punish  their  neglect.  Be  you, 
however,  faithful  thereto,  and  you  will  be  wiser  than 
the  Spaniards,  inasmuch  as  you  will  secure  to  your- 
selves the  reward  promised  to  such  as,  knowing  the 
holv  law  of  God,  have  the  grace  and  happiness  to  keep 
it."" 


42 


CHAPTER  IV. 

A  DAT  IN  THE  REDUCTIONS. 

Church,  schools,  workshops,  &c.  Feast  of  Corpus  Christi.  Di- 
versions. Religious  and  moral  habits  of  the  people.  Their  zeal 
for  the  conversion  of  their  brethren.  Arrival  of  fresh  mission- 
aries.   Ravages  of  the  small-pox. 

When  a  stranger,  with  letters  authorising  his  visit, 
made  his  appearance  in  any  of  the  reductions,  lie  was 
received  in  the  church  by  the  superior  of  the  mission,  the 
hell  was  rung',  and  the  children  and  such  as  were  within 
practicable  distance  being  assembled,  a  Te  Devm  was 
intoned  in  thanksgiving  for  his  safe  arrival — no  un- 
meaning ceremony,  where  the  journey  had  necessarily 
been  performed  amid  every  danger  that  wood  and  wild 
could  present.  This  done,-  the  traveller  was  conducted 
to  his  lodgings;  and  if  these  were  assigned  to  him  in 
the  house  of  the  superior,  he  was  waited  upon,  with 
equal  modesty  and  attention,  by  youths  who  were  being 
educated  for  the  priesthood,  and  in  this,  as  in  all  things 
else  in  that  grave  abode,  would  find  the  regularity  and 
recollection  of  monastic  life. 

The  morning  after  his  arrival,  a  bell  would  summon 
him  to  church ;  and  if  he  stood  for  a  moment  at  the  gate 
of  the  sacred  building  to  watch  the  people  assembling 
in  the  gTeat  square,  he  would  see  the  men  range  them- 
selves on  one  side,  in  their  poncios  and  Spanish  waist- 
coats, all  of  white  on  working- days,  but  of  various 
colours  on  occasions  of  festivity,  and  the  women  on  the 
other,  in  the  long  flowing  garment  called  a  tipoi,  fas- 
tened by  a  g-irdle  round  the  waist  and  made  of  wool  or 
cotton,  according  to  the  season,  but  always  of  the  same 
snowy  hue;  while,  suspended  from  a  band  drawn  tightly 
round  the  forehead,  he  would  perceive  many  a  little  in- 


OH.  IV.]  A  DAY  IN  THE  REDUCTIONS.  43 

fant  quietly  reposing'  on  its  mother's  shoulders;  and  in 
all  this  crowd  of  men  and  women  he  might  watch  and 
watch,  and  still  detect  nothing-,  in  word,  or  look,  or 
gesture,  inconsistent  with  the  sacredness  of  the  service 
at  which  they  were  about  to  assist.  When  Mass  was 
over,  perhaps  one  of  the  Jesuit  Fathers  would  conduct 
him  to  the  chacaras,  or  plantations,  where  the  men  were 
engaged  at  work,  and  thence  to  the  schools,  in  which 
the  girls  were  being*  taught  to  spin  and  sew,  the  boys 
initiated  in  various  trades,  and  all  instructed  in  reading-, 
writing',  and  arithmetic;  and  when  he  had  looked  and 
wondered  at  these  young  savages,  so  patiently  submit- 
ting- to  the  unwonted  discipline  of  school,  and  endea- 
vouring- to  master  the  tasks  which  had  been  set  them, 
then  possibly  he  would  be  led  into  the  interior  of  the 
college,  and  made  familiar  with  all  its  mysteries.  Usually 
it  was  a  long-  low  building*,  overlooking-  a  garden  in  the 
rear,  and  containing-,  not  only  the  store-rooms  and  gra- 
naries belonging-  to  the  reduction,  but  also  the  work- 
shops, where  the  various  mechanics  were  employed  at 
their  trades.  There,  as  he  wandered  from  room  to 
room,  he  would  find  tailors,  weavers,  joiners,  shoe- 
makers, and  carpenters,  all  cheerfully  engaged  in  their 
several  avocations;  and  if  his  visit  happened  to  be  paid 
upon  a  Monday,  he  would  witness  the  distribution  of 
cotton  among*  the  women  and  g'irls,  for  the  purpose  of 
spinning;  whereas  if,  on  the  contrary,  it  chanced  to  be 
a  Saturday,  he  would  see  the  same  cotton  brought  back 
spun  and  ready  for  the  loom  of  the  weaver.  Books, 
too,  he  would  find  in  plenty ;  and  not  merely  such  as  the 
Fathers  might  be  supposed  to  have  provided  for  their 
own  use,  but  such  as  were  suited  to  the  capacity  of  their 
neophytes,  and  which  were  amply  supplied  by  means  of 
a  circulating  library  established  in  one  of  the  most  cen- 
tral reductions,  whence  volumes  were  forwarded  to  the 
rest;  medicines  being  distributed  in  a  similar  manner  by 
means  of  a  medical  establishment  in  the  same  reduction. 
It  is  easy  to  suppose  that  our  stranger  would  have 
been  tempted   also  to  visit  the  Indians  in  their  own 


44  PARAGUAY. 

abodes;  and  in  those  huts,  built  of  mud,  and  roofed  with 
reeds  and  brandies,  he  would  have  found  it  no  bard 
task  to  make  himself  acquainted  with  all  the  simple 
arrangements  of  their  daily  life;  the  hammock,  care- 
fully folded  and  put  away  in  the  day-time,  its  owner 
being-  then  content  to  sit  cross-legged  upon  the  floor; 
the  hollowed  stone  for  pounding*  maize  and  manioc,  and 
all  the  still  less  artistic  contrivances  for  culinary  pur- 
poses. 

During-  these  and  similar  investigations,  the  day 
would  wear  almost  imperceptibly  away;  and  with  the 
setting-  of  the  sun  he  would  hear  the  sound  of  a  bell 
once  more,  and  once  more  see  the  children  trooping-  to 
the  church  for  a  second  catechism,  a  first  having  already 
been  given  in  the  morning.  The  adults  would  then 
come  in  for  rosary  and  night-prayers,  and  such  of  the 
children  as  had  been  employed  in  the  tupambae  would 
be  assembled  in  the  great  square,  to  receive  a  certain 
allowance,  probably  an  extra  one,  of  provisions,  which 
they  were  permitted  to  carry  home  to  their  families. 
Should  Saturday  and  Sunday  form  any  part  of  the 
stranger's  visit,  he  would  be  astonished,  perhaps,  as  well 
as  edified,  at  seeing  these  poor  savages,  who  so  lately 
had  known  nothing  of  the  law  of  conscience,  and  who 
in  all  they  said  or  did  had  been  guided  by  their  animal 
propensities  alone,  now  crowding  to  the  confessional 
with  every  mark  of  fervour  and  contrition;  but  when, 
on  the  following  day,  he  watched  them  approaching 
the  sacred  banquet  of  the  Eucharist,  for  which  many 
had  prepared  themselves  by  days  of  deep  recollection 
and  devotion,  and  oftentimes  by  acts  of  heroic  volun- 
tary mortification,  the  results  of  which  were  visible  in 
the  very  expression  of  their  countenances,  he  might  be 
tempted  to  exclaim,  in  gratitude  and  delight,  "I  con- 
fess to  Thee,  0  Father,  Lord  of  heaven  and  earth,  be- 
cause Thou  hast  hidden  these  things  from  the  wise  and 
prudent,  and  hast  revealed  them  to  little  ones.  Yea, 
Father,  for  so  it  hath  seemed  good  in  Thy  sight." 

Did  the  stranger's  visit  take  place  on  the  eve  of 


CH.  IV.]  A  DAY  IN  THE  REDUCTIONS.  45 

some  great  festival,  he  would  observe  how,  by  a  judi- 
cious mingling-  of  amusement  with  the  routine  of  their 
daily  lives,  the  Fathers  contrived  to  reconcile  their  neo- 
phytes to  a  scheme  of  labour  which  otherwise  would 
have  been  all  but  unendurable  to  the  indolence  of  their 
nature.  If  the  feast  happened  to  be  that  of  the  titu- 
lar saint  of  the  reduction,  the  inhabitants  of  two  or 
three  of  the  nearest  settlements  would  come  with  their 
pastor,  corregidors,  and  caciques  at  their  head,  to  cele- 
brate it  with  their  friends ;  the  priests  also  from  these 
reductions  would  share  the  labours  of  the  confessional 
with  the  pastors  of  the  particular  mission,  that  any  who 
had  a  difficulty  in  going-  to  their  own  superiors  might 
have  the  opportunity  of  confession — a  wise  regulation, 
which  the  Jesuits  were  always  careful  to  carry  out  yet 
more  entirely,  by  sending*  supernumerary  clergymen 
through  all  their  reductions  on  the  occasion  of  a  jubi- 
lee, or  great  indulgence. 

If,  however,  the  festival  were  that  of  Corpus  Christi, 
each  reduction  would  celebrate  it  at  home,  and  it  would 
be  proclaimed  at  noon  of  the  preceding  day  by  blast  of 
trumpet  and  beat  of  drum;  bonfires  and  rockets,  of 
which  the  Indians  were  passionately  fond,  would  illumi- 
nate the  village  in  the  evening,  and  bands  of  children 
might  be  seen  dancing  gaily  to  the  sound  of  musical  in- 
struments, which  were  made  by  the  neophytes  themselves, 
and  on  which  many  of  them  played  with  great  taste  and 
feeling.  In  the  midst  of  these  anticipatory  rejoicings,  the 
preparations  for  the  morning's  festival  would  still  be  going 
steadily  on,  many  of  the  Indians,  in  fact,  having  occupied 
themselves  with  them  for  weeks.  Some,  with  their 
bows  and  arrows,  had  killed  tigers  and  other  beautiful  but 
formidable  animals,  whose  rich  and  robe-like  skins  were 
needed  to  lay  as  carpets  of  tapestry  before  the  altars ; 
others,  with  the  lasso,  had  succeeded  in  securing  their 
prey  alive,  and  with  these,  carefully  chained  and  guarded, 
it  was  the  delight  of  the  Indians  to  grace  their  proces- 
sions— much,  perhaps,  in  the  spirit  in  which  conquerors 
of  old  caused  their  war-captives  to  follow  their  triumphal 


46  PARAGUAY. 

car.  Altars,  on  which  the  Blessed  Sacrament  was  to 
repose,  triumphal  arches,  beneath  which  It  was  to  pass, 
had  been  erected  at  intervals  along-  the  broad  avenues 
of  the  reduction;  and  both  had  been  adorned  with  all 
that  nature  lavishes  of  beautiful  and  sweet  in  those 
southern  climates.  There  were  garlands  of  the  grace- 
fill  passion-flower,  and  boughs  of  silvery  acacia ;  wreaths 
of  violets  and  magnificent  white  lilies  mingling*  with 
the  golden  fruit  of  the  orange-tree  and  the  lime.  Pine- 
apples every  where  scattered  their  delicious  odour,  and 
bunches  of  tamarinds  and  clusters  of  ripe  bananas  dis- 
played their  deeper  hues  among  the  purple  fruitage  of 
the  vine,  as  it  trailed  its  graceful  foliage  over  the  trel- 
lis-work of  the  arches.  Perhaps  a  gazelle,  bright- eyed 
and  gentle,  might  be  discovered  feeding  amid  all  this 
wealth  of  beauty;  or  a  young  smooth  tiger  might 
startle  the  visitor  with  its  fiery  glances ;  or,  from  the 
perch  to  which  they  were  fastened  by  a  long  string, 
some  of  the  rarest  and  most  beautiful  of  the  feathered 
tribe  might  describe  airy  circles  above  his  head.  The 
eagle,  with  its  eye  of  light,  and  its  cream-coloured 
rival,  the  king  of  the  vultures,  would  certainly  be  there; 
and  the  pato  real,  with  its  rich  and  varied  plumage, 
and  clusters  of  humming-birds  and  paroquets,  flashing- 
back  the  sun -rays  from  their  ruffled  wings  in  tints 
brighter  than  the  brightest  jewels  the  mine  can  boast ; 
and  when  the  blue  night  of  the  south  had  closed  over 
all,  myriads  of  luminous  insects,  fire-flies,  like  wander- 
ing stars  or  sparks  of  winged  fire,  would  sweep  along 
the  summer  air,  and  settling  ever  and  anon,  on  flower 
and  fruit  and  thick-wreathed  foliage,  make  them  glitter 
as  if  powdered  with  dust  of  diamonds. 

The  streets  through  which  the  procession  was  to 
pass  would  also  be  carpeted  with  flowers  and  herbs  of 
sweetest  odour.  The  nouses  on  either  side,  like  arch 
and  altar,  would  be  decked  with  garlands,  or  hung  with 
tapestry,  wrought  in  that  beautiful  feather-work  then 
deemed  no  mean  present  even  for  the  king  of  Spain,  so 
rich  and  various  were  the  colours,  and  so  strange  and 


CH.  IV.J  A  DAY  IN  THE  REDUCTIONS.  47 

wonderful  the  skill  with  which  they  were  blended  to- 
g-ether; and  each  neophyte  would  be  careful  also  to 
place  before  his  door  baskets  containing*  maize,  roots, 
herbs,  grain,  every  thing*,  in  fine,  which  was  to  be  sown 
or  planted  in  the  course  of  the  ensuing*  year,  that  the  Lord 
Himself  might  bless  them  as  He  passed  along*.  Within 
the  church  there  would  be  the  smoking  of  perfumes,  and 
the  sprinkling  of  sweet  waters,  flowers  scattered  on  the 
pavement,  and  lights  innumerable  burning  on  the  altar. 
At  the  conclusion  of  High  Mass  a  volley  of  musketry 
would  announce  the  setting  forth  of  the  procession,  and 
the  Blessed  Sacrament  would  be  borne  through  the 
streets  beneath  a  canopy,  upheld  by  the  chief  Indians 
of  the  reduction,  while  the  others  followed  in  regular 
order,  company  after  company,  but  all,  men,  women, 
and  children,  lifting*  up  their  voices  (and  the  Indians 
ever  sing  most  sweetly)  in  hymns  of  joy  and  welcome 
to  the  living*  Jesus. 

When  the  religious  services  of  the  day  had  been 
wound  up  with  Vespers,  the  Indians  would  assemble  in 
the  great  square,  where  sports  of  various  kinds  soon 
engrossed  all  their  attention.  Shooting  at  a  mark, 
trials  of  skill  with  the  sling  and  lasso,  were  always  of 
the  number;  but  the  "sortija,"  or  riding  at  a  ring,  was 
the  favourite  amusement,  as  it  argued  no  small  share 
of  address  and  courage  in  those  who  were  successful. 
The  preparations  for  this  sport  were  very  simple,  con- 
sisting* merely  in  a  sort  of  door-way  made  just  wide 
enough  for  the  passage  of  a  man  and  horse,  with  a  ring- 
suspended  by  means  of  a  long  cord  from  the  upper 
portion  of  the  frame.  At  this  the  horseman  rode  full 
speed  through  the  door;  and  to  him  who  carried  off  the 
ring  at  the  point  of  his  wooden  dagger  was  adjudged 
the  prize.  It  would  seem  as  if  the  memory  of  the  old 
festivities  in  the  reductions  still  lingered  among  the 
people ;  for  to  this  day  the  Indians  of  Paraguay  delight 
in  acting  mysteries  such  as  once  were  popular  among 
our  own  countrymen,  and  continue,  in  fact,  to  form 
one  of  the  chief  religious  amusements  of  the  German 


48  PARAGUAY. 

peasants.  A  stage  is  erected  in  the  open  air ;  trees,  or 
the  branches  of  trees,  are  made  to  constitute  the  scenery; 
and  here  the  Indians,  both  men  and  women,  perform 
various  passages  in  the  life  of  Christ,  and  with  a  simple 
propriety  too  (as  we  are  told  by  an  eye-witness)  which 
could  hardly  have  been  looked  for  among-  actors  so 
untaught.  In  all  probability  this  amusement  was  in- 
troduced by  the  Jesuits,  in  order  to  familiarise  their 
neophytes  with  Scripture  story;  but  whether  this  were 
the  case  or  not,  one  thing*  at  least  is  certain,  that  at 
the  close  of  such  a  festival  as  has  been  described,  the 
stranger  would  have  retired  without  detecting  one  in- 
toxicated person,  or  having*  heard  one  ang*ry  word  ;  and 
must  fain  have  acknowledged,  that  after  a  day  of  excite- 
ment such  as  might  have  set  all  the  hot  Indian  blood 
boiling*  in  their  veins,  he  had  seen  those  poor  neophytes 
retire  in  peace  and  prayer  to  their  homes,  leaving  no 
scandal  of  word  or  deed  to  mar  the  innocent  recollections 
of  the  day. 

Nor  is  this  a  fancy  picture,  or  one  descriptive  merely 
of  some  particular  period  in  the  history  of  the  reduc- 
tions. Bishop  after  Bishop  came,  visitor  after  visitor 
was  sent  from  Assumption  or  from  Spain;  and  in  no  one 
single  instance  did  they  leave  the  scene  of  their  in- 
quiries without  bearing  ample  testimony  both  to  the  wis- 
dom and  disinterestedness  of  the  rulers,  and  to  the  piety 
and  innocence  of  those  who  were  subject  to  their  govern- 
ment. Great  care  and  diligence  of  course  were  needed, 
and  especially  in  the  beginning,  to  prevent  any  relapse 
into  habits  in  which  these  poor  savages  had  indnlged 
without  remorse  or  check  dining  the  greater  portion  of 
their  lives;  and  it  was,  moreover,  needful  that  such  vigil- 
ance should  be  exerted  in  a  way  sufficiently  judicious 
to  prevent  its  becoming  either  irksome  or  irritating  to 
those  who  were  its  objects.  Innumerable,  consequently, 
but  still  as  wise  as  they  were  innumerable,  were  the 
precautions  adopted  by  the  Jesuits.  The  Indians  gene- 
rally married  at  an  early  age;  an  arrangement  for  which 
the  Fathers  have  been  sometimes  blamed  by  those  who 


CH.  IV.]  A  DAY  IN  THE  REDUCTIONS.  49 

did  not  consider  the  weighty  reasons  that  induced  them 
to  authorise  this  custom.  One  family  alone  was  allowed 
under  every  roof;  the  sexes  were  also  always  kept 
separate  at  church,  proper  persons,  called  zelators,  be- 
ing* appointed  to  watch  over  their  conduct  there ;  and 
at  night  sentinels  patrolled  the  village,  who  were  not 
only  intended  to  give  warning  of  the  approach  of  ene- 
mies or  wild-beasts,  but  whose  further  and  far  more 
important  duty  it  was  to  arouse  the  pastor  should  any 
scandal  or  disorder  occur  during  their  watch.  The 
regidor,  however,  was  always  considered  the  chief 
guardian  of  the  morals  of  the  reduction ;  and  if  any 
offence  causing  public  scandal  was  committed  during 
the  week,  it  was  his  office  to  declare  it  in  church  on  the 
following  Sunday,  and  to  inflict  the  merited  chastise- 
ment on  the  offender. 

But  these,  after  all,  were  merely  external  restraints, 
and  would,  as  the  Jesuits  were  well  aware,  have  proved 
totally  insufficient  for  the  end  in  view,  if  left  without 
the  support  of  religious  principle.  It  was  necessary  that 
they  should  love  virtue  and  hate  vice  for  the  sake  of 
God,  and  because  He  has  commanded  the  one  and  for- 
bidden the  other.  To  effect  this  great  object,  they  ac- 
customed their  neophytes  to  the  practice  of  frequent 
confession,  and  succeeded  in  inspiring  them  with  such 
reverence  for  the  Blessed  Sacrament,  and  such  an  ex- 
alted idea  of  the  purity  required  for  communion,  that 
the  preparation  these  poor  Indians  made  was  often  al- 
most as  heroic  and  sublime  as  any  thing  we  read  of  in 
the  lives  of  the  saints.  Their  spiritual  Fathers  like- 
wise taught  them  to  sanctify  their  work  by  the  sing- 
ing of  pious  canticles ;  and  by  these  and  other  similar 
means  effectually  impressed  them  with  so  deep  a 
sense  of  the  continual  presence  of  God,  and  so  lively  a 
consciousness  of  His  love  for  them,  that  they  were 
ever  found  quite  as  unwilling  to  offend  Him  in  the 
lonely  desert  as  in  the  midst  of  the  crowded  city. 
When  business,  therefore,  took  them  from  their  homes, 
neither  example  nor  persuasion  could  induce  them  to 

£ 


50  PARAGUAY. 

swear,  or  drink,  or  do  any  tiling-  else  which  they  knew 
to  be  displeasing-  to  God ;  and  instances  are  on  record 
of  their  reproaching*  Spaniards  with  their  violations  of 
the  Divine  law,  saying*  that  "  nothing*  good  came  from 
Spain  excepting*  wine,  and  even  that  by  their  wickedness 
they  turned  into  poison."  Cruelty  and  revenge,  the  nor- 
mal vices  of  the  savage,  were  naturally  the  most  difficult 
to  be  uprooted;  but  even  here  so  marvellous  was  the 
success  of  the  Jesuits,  that,  generally  speaking*  (for  it 
is  true  there  were  exceptions),  hereditary  feuds  and  en- 
mities entirely  ceased ;  the  Christian  Indian  learnt  to 
look  upon  every  neophyte  as  a  brother,  whatever  the 
tribe  to  which  he  might  belong*,  and  as  such  was  ever 
ready  to  assist  him ;  so  that  if  the  harvest  failed  in  one 
of  the  reductions,  the  rest  would  vie  with  each  other  in 
making  up  the  deficiency. 

Yet  this  charity,  great  as  it  was,  was  surpassed  by 
that  which  they  exhibited  towards  their  pagan  brethren. 
They  would  submit  to  any  amount  of  trouble  or  ill-usage 
for  the  sake  of  converting  even  one.  If  a  wild  Indian 
was  induced  to  visit  the  reduction,  they  would  receive 
him  with  every  demonstration  of  joy.  The  more  savage 
he  was,  the  more  prepossessed  against  them,  the  more 
cordially  did  they  welcome  him,  the  more  tenderly  did 
they  treat  him,  because  they  felt  that  the  greater  was 
the  hardness  of  his  heart,  the  greater  was  the  manifes- 
tation of  love  required  to  win  it.  They  would  lodge, 
clothe,  feed  him,  give  him  the  best  of  all  they  had, 
spend  hours  in  teaching  and  instructing*  him  j  and  the 
day  of  his  conversion,  if  he  was  converted,  was  always 
one  of  unaffected  rejoicing  to  the  whole  reduction.  The 
cannibal  Indians  were  frequently  in  the  habit  of  selling 
such  of  the  children  of  their  conquered  foes  as  they  did 
not  devour,  and  these  the  Christians  eagerly  purchased ; 
maize,  corn,  manioc,  cloth,  all  being  liberally  offered  in 
exchange.  If  boys,  these  rescued  little  ones  were  con- 
fided to  the  care  of  the  cacique,  or  chief  of  the  reduc- 
tion, to  be  brought  up  as  Christians ;  if  girls,  they  were 
given  to  the  most  exemplary  and  well-instructed  of  the 


CH.  IV.]  A  DAY  IN  THE  REDUCTIONS.  51 

women  for  a  similar  purpose $  and  when  they  were  old 
enough  to  support  themselves,  they  each  received  a 
house  and  plot  of  ground,  and  were  admitted  to  every 
other  privilege  enjoyed  by  the  original  inhabitants  of 
the  settlement.  Another  of  the  favourite  duties  of  the 
neophytes  was  to  accompany  their  pastor  in  his  search 
for  souls ;  and  in  this  they  were  often  of  the  greatest 
use,  because  the  wild  Indians  were  far  less  suspicious 
of  their  missionary  visitant  when  he  thus  came  to  them 
in  company  with  some  of  their  own  nation. 

But  if,  as  it  often  happened,  no  Jesuit  could  be 
spared  to  accompany  them,  they  would  take  this  office 
on  themselves;  and  as  soon  as  the  great  rains  were 
over,  a  troop  of  neophytes,  with  their  cacique  at  then- 
head,  would  prepare  to  leave  the  reduction,  in  order  to 
announce  the  Gospel  to  their  heathen  brethren.  First, 
however,  they  confessed  and  communicated ;  then,  after 
obtaining  the  advice  and  last  blessing  of  their  pastor, 
they  set  out  upon  their  pious  errand,  taking  with  them 
a  sufficient  store  of  provisions  to  prevent  their  being  a 
burden  to  the  objects  of  their  charitable  interest. 

They  went  in  the  spirit  and  desire  of  martyrdom,  a 
fate  which  in  fact  they  often  encountered,  either  through 
the  hardships  of  the  journey  or  at  the  hands  of  their 
own  countrymen ;  but  wherever  a  friendly  tribe  received 
them,  there  they  gave  full  scope  to  their  loving  zeal. 
With  touching  earnestness  they  would  explain  over  and 
over  again  the  object  of  the  Jesuits  in  coming  among 
their  people,  assuring  each  and  all  (in  order  that  there 
might  be  no  misapprehension  on  the  subject)  that  it  was 
not  to  enslave  the  Indian,  but  to  render  him  happy  in 
this  life  and  eternally  happy  in  the  next ;  and  then  they 
would  speak  of  God  with  such  burning  eloquence  and 
overflowing  fervour,  that  they  often  returned  to  their 
reduction  followed  by  hundreds  of  poor  heathens,  who, 
thanks  to  the  charity  which  had  thus  sought  them  out 
in  the  desert,  soon  became  as  devout  and  well-instructed 
Christians  as  those  who  had  brought  them  to  the  settle- 
ment.    Sometimes  it  happened  that  the  number  thus 


52  PARAGUAY. 

collected  was  far  too  great  to  admit  of  their  being*  re- 
ceived as  permanent  dwellers  in  the  reduction ■  and  in 
this  case  their  instructors  would  gladly  furnish  all  that 
was  needed  for  the  founding-  of  a  new  one ;  not  only 
supplying-  corn,  cattle,  and  clothing*  from  their  own 
stores,  but  giving*  what  to  an  Indian  was  much  more 
difficult  to  bestow,  their  personal  and  active  co-opera- 
tion in  the  labour. 

The  neophytes  who,  whether  from  disposition  or 
other  circumstances,  were  unequal  to  such  rough 
apostleship,  gladly  made  themselves  useful  in  a  differ- 
ent way ;  for  example,  in  teaching  their  language  to 
the  newly-arrived  missionaries,  resolutely  overcoming 
their  natural  indolence  and  dislike  to  trouble  in  order 
to  accomplish  their  task  with  greater  speed  and  effici- 
ency •  and  one  instance  in  particular  is  recorded  of  a 
cacicpie  who  literally  spent  his  days  in  translating 
certain  books  which  he  thought  would  enable  the 
Jesuits  to  enter  more  readily  and  prosperously  on  their 
career  of  Christian  conquest. 

Burning  with  such  zeal  as  this  for  the  conversion  of 
their  nation,  it  was  only  natural  they  should  hail  any 
accession  to  the  number  of  the  missionaries  with  grati- 
tude and  delight.  Some  of  the  neophytes  were  gene- 
rally sent  to  conduct  the  new-comers  to  their  destina- 
tion ■  on  such  occasions  they  always  intoned  the  Te 
Deitm  for  their  safe  arrival,  and  with  such  an  unaffected 
expression  of  real  feeling,  that  Father  Cajetan  Cattaneo, 
fresh  as  he  was  from  the  exercises  of  a  religious  house, 
tells  us  he  could  not  behold  them  sink  upon  their  knees 
at  the  verse  Te  ergo  qucesumus  without  being  touched 
to  the  very  heart.  This  occurred  in  a  court  of  the 
Jesuits'  College  at  Buenos  Ayres,  whither  they  had 
been  sent  to  meet  him;  and  severely  was  their  devotion 
tested,  and  triumphantly  did  it  stand  the  test,  in  the 
course  of  the  journey  homewards.  Their  route  lay  up 
the  river,  and  at  first  all  things  went  smoothly ;  safely 
but  slowly,  on  account  of  the  innumerable  sandbanks 
and  rocks  that  lurk  beneath  those  waters,  they  coasted 


CH.  IV.]  A  DAY  IN  THE  REDUCTIONS.  58 

along-  the  Plata  and  the  Uruguay,  making-  sail  only  in 
the  day-time,  and  at  night-fall  tying  their  balsas*  to 
a  tree  while  they  landed  to  cook  their  supper ;  never 
failing,  however,  first  to  arrange  an  oratory  of  g-reen 
boug-hs,  where  they  sung-  the  Litany  of  our  Lady  and 
the  Ave  Maris  Stella,  and  recited  the  rosary  and  night- 
prayers.  In  the  same  rustic  chapel  prayers  were  said 
the  next  morning-  before  starting ;  and  so  they  went  on 
from  day  to  day,  until,  on  approaching  the  reduction  of 
St.  Michael's,  the  small-pox  broke  out  suddenly  among 
them.  One  died ;  a  Spaniard  charitably  took  charge 
of  two  others,  and  conveyed  them  to  his  plantation,  a 
little  distance  up  the  country  ;  but  as  it  was  by  no 
means  certain  that  the  infection  was  stayed,  a  messen- 
ger was  despatched  to  the  next  reduction  with  a  re- 
quest for  a  fresh  supply  of  provisions,  in  case  they 
should  be  compelled,  as  "they  feared,  to  encamp  in  the 
wilderness.  Then  they  went  on  with  all  the  speed 
they  could,  travelling-  all  day  long,  and  sometimes  more 
than  half  the  night ;  but  the  disease  had  taken  steady 
hold,  and  it  was  in  vain  to  endeavour  to  outstrip  it. 
Four  natives  were  attacked  at  once ;  they  were  imme- 
diately parted  from  the  others  and  put  into  a  separate 
canoe,  and  those  who  managed  it  made  to  follow  in  the 
rear ;  but  the  precaution  was  of  no  avail.  Again  four- 
teen were  stricken ; — with  such  a  number  of  sick  it 
was  impossible  to  proceed.  Yet  the  alternative  was 
sufficiently  appalling-.  A  hundred  leagues  lay  still  be- 
tween them  and  the  next  reduction,  and  there  was  no 
hope  of  provisions  nearer ;  for  the  wild  Indians  fled  in 
dismay  the  moment  they  were  aware  of  the  danger. 
Moreover,  only  one  of  the  priests  understood  the  Indian 
language,  the  other  religious  being  all  young  mission- 
aries from  Spain;  and  it  became  a  cpiestion  of  grave 
import  whether  he  should  proceed  with  those  who  were 
still  well  enough  to  travel,  or  whether  he  should  stay 
with  such  as  were  to  be  left  behind.  If  he  went  for- 
ward, the  poor  sufferers  would  die  unaided ;  and  yet,  if 
*  Vessels  formed  by  lashing  two  open  boats  together. 


54  PARAGUAY. 

he  remained,  the  others,  some  of  whom  doubtless  carried 
the  disease  about  them,  would  be  compelled  to  meet  it 
without  religious  assistance.  In  this  dilemma,  ten  of  the 
Indians  voluntarily  offered  themselves  to  attend  upon 
their  dying-  brethren.  Their  services  were  gladly  ac- 
cepted ;  Father  Ximenes  halted  with  them  for  a  time, 
administered  the  Sacraments  both  to  attendants  and  to 
patients,  prepared  the  latter  for  their  approaching"  end, 
comforted,  instructed,  and  consoled  the  whole  party, 
and  then  set  off  to  join  the  squadron  in  advance.  Hap- 
pily the  brave  Indians  whom  he  had  left  behind,  nobly 
facing-  death  in  the  cause  of  charity,  were  enabled  to 
save  half  the  number  of  those  whose  charge  they  had 
undertaken.  These,  when  convalescent,  they  placed  on 
board  a  couple  of  canoes ;  and  having*  buried  tiieir  dead, 
crept  slowly  up  the  river  in  order  to  overtake  the  main 
body  of  the  travellers.  In  the  end  they  succeeded ;  al- 
though no  sooner  was  this  great  duty  accomplished  and 
their  charge  surrendered,  than  they  fell  sick  themselves, 
and  all  save  one  perished  of  the  very  disease  from  which 
they  had  rescued  their  brethren;  as  if  God,  in  His  lov- 
ing- approbation  of  their  conduct,  could  wait  no  longer, 
but  must  needs  call  them  to  Himself,  in  order  at  once 
to  reward  them  for  a  charity  which  till  then  was  al- 
most unprecedented  among-  their  people. 

All  this  time  the  small-pox  had  never  ceased  its 
ravages  even  for  a  day ;  and  thus,  burying  their  dead 
as  they  passed  along,  the  strong  and  the  sick  went  on 
together  until  they  arrived  at  a  pass  of  the  Uruguay 
called  the  "  Itu."  Here  they  gave  up  this  vain  night 
from  death.  A  hundred  and  seventy  were  stricken  with 
the  disease  together;  and  nothing  remained  but  to  land 
in  earnest,  to  separate  the  sick  from  the  hale,  to  build 
straw-huts  for  the  shelter  of  the  sufferers,  and  to  des- 
patch another  messenger  in  the  direction  of  Yapeju  for 
the  purpose  of  hastening  the  supplies  which  were  ex- 
pected from  that  reduction.  They  arrived  only  just  in 
time  to  prevent  starvation,  and  two  months  more  were 
bpcnt  perforce  in  the  desert,  during  which  the  Indians 


OH.  IV.]  A  DAY  IN  THE  REDUCTIONS.  55 

died  by  dozens,  but  always  in  sentiments  of  fervour  and 
devotion  equally  surprising  and  consoling"  to  the  Fathers 
who  attended  them.  At  the  end  of  that  period  the 
malady  abated ;  and  the  Father  Superior,  whom  they 
had  at  length  succeeded  in  acquainting  with  their  situ- 
ation, came  to  their  assistance.  In  a  very  short  time 
he  had  arranged  and  provided  all  things  for  their  prompt 
departure ;  the  convalescent  he  made  to  travel  slowly, 
in  order  that  their  quarantine  might  be  completed  be- 
fore reaching  the  reduction ;  but  those  who  had  escaped 
infection  were  of  course  glad  to  proceed  as  rapidly  as 
they  coidd.  The  new  missionaries  were  of  the  latter 
number;  and  they  had  soon  the  happiness  of  arriving*  at 
Yapeju,  where  they  were  received  with  rejoicing  pro- 
portioned to  the  dangers  and  sorrows  amidst  which 
their  journey  had  been  accomplished.  In  that  single 
voyage  from  Buenos  Ayres  to  the  reductions  upwards  of 
a  hundred  Indians  had  perished  ;  and  it  may  give  some 
notion  of  then*  zeal  to  say,  that  out  of  all  that  number 
there  was  not  one  who  did  not  expire  rejoicing*  in  the 
thought,  that  he  died  in  the  act  of  introducing  fresh 
missionaries  into  the  country  for  the  conversion  and 
civilisation  of  his  heathen  brethren. 

The  preceding*  sketch  was  necessary,  in  order  to 
afford  the  reader  some  insight  into  the  principles  on 
which  the  reductions  were  founded,  and  the  regula- 
tions by  which  they  were  afterwards  permanently  esta- 
blished. We  will  now  return  to  their  general  history, 
and  describe  the  formidable  foe  by  whom  for  a  long 
time  not  only  their  peace  and  prosperity  were  disturbed, 
but  their  very  existence  as  a  self-governing  institution 
was  threatened. 


56 


CHAPTER   V. 

THE  MAMELUKES  OF  ST.  PAUL'S. 

St.  Paul's  Lawlessness  of  its  inhabitants.  Their  treachery  and 
cruelty  to  the  Indians.  Attack  on  the  reductions.  First  migra- 
tions. Courage  and  determination  of  the  missionaries.  Crimes 
of  the  "Mamelukes."  The  Fathers  resolve  to  evacuate  the  re- 
ductions. 

In  one  of  the  provinces  of  Brazil,  and  twelve  leagues 
from  the  seaport  town  of  San  Vincente,  once  stood  the 
city  of  Piratininga,  or  St.  Paul,  the  capital  of  the 
district  to  which  it  gave  its  name.  Built  upon  a  nearly 
inaccessible  rock,  hemmed  in  on  one  side  by  mountains 
almost  as  precipitous  as  the  height  from  whence  it 
looked  frowning*  down  upon  the  plains  beneath,  and  on 
the  other  by  the  deep  and  impenetrable  forest  of  "  Per- 
nabacaba,"  its  inhabitants  could  issue  forth  at  any  mo- 
ment to  levy  supplies  upon  the  adjoining-  country,  or 
stand  at  bay  behind  the  impregnable  walls  of  their 
rock-built  fortress.  With  such  facilities  both  for  of- 
fence and  defence,  it  was  doubly  unfortunate  that  they 
should  have  been  the  very  worst  of  the  worst  colonists 
who  had  yet  visited  the  new  world.  At  first,  between 
free  men  and  slaves,  they  barely  mustered  four  hun- 
dred inhabitants ;  but  the  unchecked  license  in  which 
they  lived  soon  drew  numbers  within  their  walls,  which 
became  an  asylum  for  the  refuse  of  all  nations — Portu- 
guese, Spaniards,  Englishmen,  Dutchmen,  the  last  al- 
ways preponderating, — all,  in  fine,  who  had  left  Europe 
to  escape  the  punishment  due  to  their  crimes,  or  to  fol- 
low the  lawless  desires  of  their  own  hearts,  Hocked  to 
St.  Paul's;  and  when  their  numbers  grew  from  hun- 
dreds into  thousands,  the  citizens  flung  off  the  yoke, 
and  even  the  semblance  of  the  yoke,  of  lawful  authority, 


CH.  V.]  THE  MAMELUKES  OF  ST.  PAUL'S.  57 

and  declared  themselves  independent  of  the  Portuguese 
crown.  Nor  had  that  kingdom  the  power  to  dispute 
the  claim;  for  with  their  unscalable  rock,  and  their 
abundant  supply  of  arms  and  ammunition,  as  well  as 
the  power  which  they  possessed  of  manufacturing-  the 
latter  whenever  it  was  needed,  they  could  easily  have 
bidden  defiance  to  a  far  larger  force  than  any  which 
the  nominal  monarch  of  their  half-wild  territory  could 
have  brought  to  bear  against  them. 

Hence  it  shortly  came  to  pass  that  they  lived  as  if 
they  were  no  longer  accountable  either  to  God  or  to 
man.  They  scorned  the  peaceful  arts,  as  they  were 
scorned  of  old  by  the  warlike  Spartans.  Such  lands  as 
they  possessed  were  cultivated  by  slaves,  and  for  the 
rest  they  trusted  to  war  and  pillage ;  the  slave-trade,  in 
all  its  naked  and  appalling  reality,  being  their  principal 
resource.  The  slave-market  of  Janeiro  was  stocked  by 
these  marauders.  From  their  city  of  refuge,  where 
they  dwelt  on  high  with  the  eagles,  they  would  rush 
down  suddenly  upon  the  plains,  surround  the  tolde- 
rias,  or  cluster  of  wigwams,  which  constituted  the 
village  of  the  Indians,  carry  off  the  able-bodied  men 
for  slaves,  apportion  tflit  the  young'  girls  and  women 
among  themselves,  and  put  the  rest  without  pity  to  the 
sword.  Even  the  other  colonists  of  America  were  not 
safe  from  these  attacks ;  whenever  and  wherever  they 
could  be  assailed  with  impunity,  they  met  with  quite 
as  little  mercy  at  their  hands  as  the  Indians  themselves. 
The  fame  of  the  Paulistas  for  cruelty  and  wickedness 
soon  spread  far  and  wide,  until,  instead  of  the  name 
which  they  had  taken  from  their  adopted  city,  they 
came  to  be  designated  as  the  "  Mamelukes/'  a  title 
significant  both  to  Spaniard  and  to  Portuguese  of  all  the 
horrors  of  sacrilege,  robbery,  and  murder,  which  every 
where  marked  the  track  of  these  dreaded  freebooters. 

The  Paulistas  had  thus  become  the  scourge  of  the 
land;  and  all,  Spaniards,  Portuguese,  and  Indians 
alike,  had  learned  to  tremble  at  their  name,  when  the 
Jesuits   appeared  in  the   adjoining   province,  and  by 


68  PARAGUAY. 

commencing-  their  mission  both  in  Spanish  America 
and  in  Brazil  itself  deprived  them  of  the  great  source 
of  their  riches — the  unrestricted  power  of  catering'  for 
the  slave-trade.  For  wherever  the  Jesuit  came,  he 
broug-ht  with  him  the  germs  of  civilisation  and  of  order. 
If  the  wild  Indians  gathered  round,  him,  they  were 
safe,  as  far  as  the  law  of  nations  could  make  them  so ; 
they  were  men,  and  had  the  rights  of  men,  and  could 
neither  he  bought  nor  sold  at  the  will  of  the  European. 
This  the  rescript  of  the  Spanish  monarch  had  declared, 
and  this  the  Jesuits  every  where  enforced  in  a  way  that 
few  others  in  their  position  would  have  ventured  to 
adopt.  If  their  neophytes  were  stolen  from  them,  they 
followed  them  to  the  very  camp  of  the  marauder,  to 
beg  or  buy  them  from  the  ruthless  enslaver ;  or  they 
appealed  from  tribunal  *o  tribunal,  from  America  to 
Europe,  from  the  viceroy  in  Peru  to  the  monarch  at 
Madrid,  and  from  the  monarch  at  Madrid  to  the  judg- 
ment of  the  world.  They  left  the  extortioner  no  peace, 
for  they  every  where  published  the  wrongs  of  the  red 
man  and  the  injustice  of  the  white ;  and  if  every  man's 
hand  was  at  length  raised  to  strike  them,  if  every  man's 
voice  uttered  evil  tilings  against  them,  if  they  were 
finally  driven  from  their  reductions  upon  charges  which 
all  the  world  proclaimed,  but  which  nobody  could  prove, 
it  is  yet  impossible  to  study  dispassionately  the  history 
of  the  times  in  which  they  lived,  and  of  the  men  amidst 
whom  they  dwelt,  and  not  to  feel  that,  from  first  to 
last,  the  real  quarrel  of  the  American  settlers  with  the 
Jesuit  Fathers  was,  that  they  set  themselves  against 
the  illegal  slavery  of  the  natives. 

The  inhabitants  of  St.  Paid  were  not  the  men  to 
bear  reproach  and  opposition  tamely.  In  the  end  they 
expelled  the  Jesuits  from  their  city;  but  at  first  they 
seem  rather  to  have  resorted  to  stratagem  than  to  have 
appealed  to  the  strong  argument  of  war.  Probably, 
with  all  their  recklessness,  they  had  some  hesitation  at 
the  commencement  in  carrying  bloodshed  and  havoc 
into  settlements  protected  alike  by  the  united  flags  of 


Cll.  V.J         THE  MAMELUKES  OF  ST.  PAULAS.  59 

Portugal  and  Spain,  and  by  the  sanction  of  the  Church 
to  which,  in  name  at  least,  many  of  them  belonged. 
The  device  which  they  hit  upon  was  as  ingenious  as  it 
was  cruel;  for  it  enabled  them  not  only  to  decoy  the 
Indians  into  their  net,  but  to  persuade  them  that  they 
owed  their  detention  to  the  machinations  of  the  Jesuit 
Fathers— the  real  and  only  protectors  of  their  freedom. 
Sometimes  they  would  wander  in  little  groups  through 
the  country,  planting  crosses,  making  presents  to  the 
savages,  conversing  with  them  in  the  Guarani  language, 
which  was  the  most  generally  understood  by  both  par- 
ties ;  and  when  they  had  persuaded  them  to  settle  with 
them  in  some  quiet  spot,  they  led  their  victims  into  the 
vicinity  of  St.  Paul's,  when  fetters  and  fire-arms  did 
the  rest;  or  the  captain  of  the  Mameluke  party,  leaving 
his  men  crouching  among  the  tall  thistles  and  under- 
wood of  the  plain,  would  issue  forth  alone,  clad  in  the 
garb  of  the  Jesuits — the  "  black-robes,"  as  the  Indians 
called  them — and  drawing-  them  towards  him  by  the 
magic  of  the  name  of  Christ,  he  would  speak  kindly 
and  gently  to  them;  until  a  sufficient  number  having 
been  collected,  the  preconcerted  signal  was  given,  and, 
his  men  rushing  in,  the  poor  natives  were  surrounded 
and  carried  off  fettered  for  the  market  before  they  had 
even  dreamed  of  a  defence.  Some  of  the  victims  thus 
ensnared  generally  made,  or  perhaps  were  permitted  to 
make,  their  escape ;  and  these,  returning  to  their  brethren 
in  the  reduction,  would  tell  how  the  false  black-robe  had 
spoken  peace  with  his  lips  when  there  was  war  in  his 
heart,  and  how  he  had  filled  their  ears  with  caressing 
words  of  love  and  kindness  only  that  he  might  lure 
them  with  greater  certainty  to  their  doom  ;  and  with 
darkening  brow  and  wrathful  spirit  his  savage  audience 
would  sit  and  listen,  until  they  rose  in  their  frenzy  to 
massacre  their  spiritual  fathers ;  or  else, — and  it  seems 
almost  too  sad  a  tale  to  tell  it, — they  fled  in  sorrow 
and  dismay,  to  seek,  amidst  wood  and  wild  and  in 
ceaseless  roving,  that  safety  for  themselves  and  for 
their  children  which  they  felt  they  never  could  look 


60  PARAGUAY. 

for  among  Christian  men,  since  the  treacherous  black- 
robe,  in  his  garb  of  peace,  had  proved  as  cruel  as  the 
soldier  in  his  coat  of  mail. 

The  suspicion  thus  created  was  the  greatest  difficulty 
with  which  the  Jesuit  had  to  contend ;  but  he  con- 
tended perseveringly  and  successfully.  At  whatever 
risk  or  danger  to  himself,  he  left  no  means  unemployed 
to  disabuse  the  poor  Indians  of  their  false  impressions. 
If  they  sought  to  kill  him,  he  bowed  cheerfully  to  the 
stroke;  if  they  were  taken  captive,  he  moved  heaven 
and  earth  to  procure  their  freedom ;  if  they  fled  from 
him  in  hatred  and  dismay,  he  pursued  them  with  a  love 
which  in  the  end  was  sure  to  overcome  all  fear,  and  to 
restore  to  him  the  confidence  and  veneration  of  his 
flock.  Alas  !  it  too  often  happened,  that  when  he  had 
thus,  with  infinite  pain  and  labour  to  himself,  persuaded 
his  scared  children  to  return,  trembling  but  reassured, 
to  the  life  of  industry  which  had  been  so  cruelly  inter- 
rupted, the  Mamelukes,  emboldened  by  impunity,  came 
down  upon  them  in  undisguised  and  open  warfare,  to 
rob,  to  burn,  to  murder,  and  make  captive,  sending  the 
Indian  once  more  wailing  to  the  woods,  and  dashing  all 
the  hopes  of  the  missionary  to  the  ground  at  the  very 
moment  when  they  seemed  certain  of  fulfilment.  These 
dealers  in  flesh  and  blood  were  not  long  content  with 
the  scanty  supply  of  slaves  which  their  stratagems  could 
procure  them,  they  soon  brought  fire  and  sword  to  aid 
them  in  their  traffic;  while  the  Spaniards,  glad  at  any 
price  to  have  the  storm  averted  from  themselves,  shame- 
fully stood  aloof,  and  waited  the  issue  of  the  unequal 
contest.  So  completely,  indeed,  were  they  blinded  by 
their  prejudices,  so  entirely,  even  in  those  early  days, 
had  they  learned  to  regard  the  Jesuits  with  suspicion, 
and  to  consider  the  missions  a  check  upon  their  avarice, 
— that  they  could  not,  or  at  least  they  would  not  see 
the  real  value  of  these  settlements,  which,  interposing 
directly  between  them  and  their  foe,  might,  if  properly 
supported,  have  been  made  an  almost  insuperable  bar- 
rier to  his  further  advances.     The  Indians,  therefore, 


CH.  V.]  THE  MAMELUKES  OF  ST.  PAUL'S.  61 

were  left  to  defend  themselves,  and  that  too  without 
even  the  ordinary  weapons  which  necessity  demanded ; 
for,  with  its  usual  narrow-minded  misgiving's,  the  colonial 
government  had  forbidden  the  use  of  fire-arms  in  the 
reductions ;  and  it  was  not  until  years  of  expostulation 
had  been  wasted,  and  thousands  "had  perished  through 
the  vain  delay,  that  this  cruel  edict  was  finally  re- 
scinded. 

Under  such  circumstances,  the  young-  colonies  in 
Brazil  were  easily  destroyed ;  and  the  reductions  of 
Guayra  were  the  next  to  be  attacked.  In  the  universal 
consternation  which  prevailed,  at  first  no  defence  was 
attempted  or  even  thought  of,  and  reduction  after 
reduction  went  down  before  the  invader.  At  length, 
laden  with  captives,  the  Mamelukes  appeared  before 
Incarnation ;  but  at  the  first  note  of  danger,  Montoyo, 
who  was  then  provincial,  rushed  to  the  spot,  arrested 
the  flying  Indians,  exhorted  them  to  turn  and  rescue 
their  captive  brethren ;  and  while  hastily  arming  them 
for  the  fight,  despatched  Mendoza,  the  Jesuit  Father 
of  the  reduction,  to  try  and  negotiate  with  the  foe. 
A  shower  of  arrows  and  a  volley  of  musketry  greeted 
his  approach  to  the  hostile  camp.  The  Father  was 
wounded,  and  a  neophyte  killed  at  his  side;  but  still 
undaunted,  he  sought  out  the  robber-chieftain,  told  him 
to  his  face,  and  in  the  midst  of  his  Mamelukes,  that 
he  was  outlawed  alike  of  God  and  man,  and  then,  as- 
sembling the  Indian  captives,  he  cut  their  bonds,  and 
actually  carried  them  off  in  the  face  of  the  whole 
arm}' ;  the  very  boldness  of  the  act,  and  perhaps  some 
lingering  respect  for  the  character  of  the  priesthood, 
preventing  the  troops  from  attempting  to  oppose  him. 
An  interview  between  the  provincial  himself  and  the 
Mameluke  captain  followed,  and  the  latter  was  ulti- 
mately induced  to  withdraw  his  troops ;  but  it  was 
only  for  a  time.  In  the  course  of  that  very  year  the 
governor  of  Paraguay  passed  through  the  reductions 
at  a  moment  when  nine  hundred  Mamelukes  and  two 
thousand  wild  Indians,  their  allies,  were  known  to  be 


62  PARAGUAY. 

assembled  at  St.  Paul's,  and  only  waiting*  his  departure 
to  rush  down  upon  the  missions.  Yet  the  provincial, 
who  had  dared  so  much  already,  in  vain  implored  him 
to  send  troops  to  their  assistance.  With  fair  words, 
and  unmeaning-  congratulations  upon  the  vast  amount 
of  good  which  he  acknowledged  had  been  effected, 
he  passed  on  from  the  threatened  province  to  the  city 
of  Assumption ;  and  the  Jesuits  were  left  to  defend  their 
neophytes  if  they  could,  or  to  perish  with  them  if 
they  failed. 

The  day  of  strife  was  hastened  by  an  accident.  A 
poor  prisoner  had  contrived  to  escape  from  St.  Paul's ; 
and  having-  sought  protection  at  St.  Anthony's,  Father 
Mola,  the  pastor  of  that  mission,  refused  to  give  him  up. 
In  revenge  the  Mamelukes  fell  upon  his  congregation, 
killed  numbers  at  the  very  foot  of  the  altar,  to  which 
they  had  fled  for  refuge,  and  carried  off  hundreds  into 
captivity.  A  few  of  the  wretched  inhabitants  succeeded 
in  escaping  to  Incarnation ;  others,  sullen  and  despair- 
ing, withdrew  into  the  woods ;  and  there,  seized  with 
the  old  maddening  suspicion  of  the  treachery  of  the 
Jesuits,  they  rushed  out  to  seek  Father  Mola,  with  the 
intention  of  putting  him  to  death.  They  found  him 
sitting  among  the  ruins  of  the  reduction,  and  plunged 
m  the  deepest  grief;  jret  he  had  to  argue  long  and 
seriously  with  these  unhappy  creatures  before  he  could 
convince  them  of  the  injustice  of  their  suspicions.  AY  1 1  en 
this  was  once  effected,  they  became  amenable  to  reason ; 
and  prevailing  upon  them  to  abandon  their  desolated 
home,  he  led  them  first  to  St.  Michael's,  and  afterwards 
further  still  to  the  colony  of  the  Incarnation.  Father 
Mansilla,  of  the  former  reduction,  followed  him  soon 
after  with  such  of  his  neophytes  as  he  could  persuade 
to  move.  Many,  however,  refused  to  accompany  him,  he 
returned  therefore  as  soon  as  he  had  left  the  fugitives  in 
safety ;  and  as  the  Mamelukes  were  then  approaching, 
he  at  length  induced  them  to  retire  and  seek  safety  in 
the  woods.  Hardly  had  they  made  their  escape,  when 
their  village  was  sacked  and  burned  by  the  foe ;  yet, 


CH.  V.]  THE  MAMELUKES  OF  ST.  PAUL'S.  63 

painful  to  relate,  the  indignation  of  the  poor  bewildered 
creatures  fell  on  the  very  man  to  whom  they  owed  their 
deliverance,  and  Father  Mansilla  narrowly  escaped  their 
vengeance  with  his  life.  The  accusation  which  had 
been  brought  against  Father  Mola  was  renewed  in  re- 
gard to  this  good  religious ;  the  Mamelukes,  to  further 
their  own  nefarious  designs,  took  care  to  propagate  it 
in  every  direction ;  and  as  these  were  all  young  colonies, 
and  neither  sufficiently  grounded  in  the  faith  nor  suf- 
ficiently convinced  of  the  real  motives  of  the  Fathers 
to  be  invulnerable  to  suspicion,  it  had  its  full  effect 
upon  the  inhabitants  of  St.  Michael's.  With  some 
difficulty  Mansilla  succeeded  in  removing  their  mis- 
givings, and  the  Mamelukes  passed  on  from  the  de- 
struction of  their  reduction  to  that  of  Jesu-Maria. 
From  the  latter  place  they  carried  off  a  crowd  of  cap- 
tives. The  Fathers  resolved  upon  a  rescue;  but  the 
enemy  being*  far  too  numerous  to  be  attacked  by  any 
body  of  Indians  they  could  at  the  moment  have  raised 
against  them,  they  determined,  instead  of  fighting,  to 
follow  the  Mamelukes  into  Brazil,  and  to  remonstrate 
with  the  captain-general  of  that  province  respecting 
their  conduct. 

The  fugitives  were  soon  overtaken;  but  at  the  sight 
of  his  poor  neophytes  drooping  alike  with  sorrow  and 
fatigue,  one  of  the  Fathers  could  contain  himself  no 
longer,  and  rushing*,  in  spite  of  the  muskets  that  were 
pointed  at  him,  and  the  insults  and  blows  that  were 
showered  upon  him,  into  the  midst  of  the  captives,  he 
embraced  them  one  by  one,  loudly  demanding  in  pathetic 
accents  either  that  they  should  be  restored  to  freedom, 
or  that  he  should  himself  be  permitted  to  share  their 
chains.  Some  of  the  Mamelukes  reviled,  some  threat- 
ened, many  scoffed  at  him  as  a  madman ;  and  one  alone 
in  all  that  number  was  moved  by  pity  to  give  up  to 
him  such  of  the  captives  as  had  fallen  to  his  share,  under 
promise,  of  course,  of  a  future  ransom.  This  success  did 
but  encourage  the  Father  to  greater  efforts ;  and  see- 
ing the  cacique  Guiayvara  among  the  prisoners,  he  put 


64  PARAGUAY. 

the  chain  that  bound  him  round  his  own  neck,  declaring* 
he  would  not  take  it  thence  until  he  had  obtained  his 
freedom.  The  Mamelukes  grew  angry,  and  in  the  dis- 
cussion that  ensued  he  was  more  than  once  on  the  point 
of  having-  his  brains  blown  out ;  but  his  determination 
and  his  utter  indifference  to  danger  won  the  day,  and 
the  cacique  and  a  certain  number  of  the  other  Indians 
were  at  last  surrendered.  Guiayvara  was  astonished, 
as  well  he  might  be ;  he  had  long-  been  wavering*  be- 
tween his  idol-worship  and  the  Christian  creed,  nnd 
during*  all  that  period  of  irresolution  had  behaved  with 
the  utmost  barbarity  to  this  very  Father.  But  now, 
as  he  felt  the  chains  fall  from  his  limbs,  he  threw  him- 
self in  a  very  passion  of  gratitude  at  his  benefactor's 
feet;  and  when  he  was  afterwards  sent  home  under 
the  security  of  an  escort,  he  could  only  satisfy  his 
deep  consciousness  of  the  debt  he  owed  him  by  going 
from  reduction  to  reduction,  every  where  proclaiming 
the  charity  of  the  Father,  and  exonerating  his  brethren 
of  the  Society  from  all  suspicion  of  collusion  with 
their  foes. 

In  the  meantime  the  Mamelukes,  finding  their  cap- 
tives disappearing  through  the  intervention  of  this  good 
Father,  resolved  to  rid  themselves  of  his  presence,  and 
decamped  one  day  without  him.  He  fell  back  upon 
Father  Mansilla,  who  had  been  left  a  little  in  the  rear; 
and  after  a  short  consultation,  they  resolved  still  to 
follow  in  the  distance.  There  was  no  room  for  hesi- 
tation about  a  path,  the  route  lay  clear  before  them, 
marked  out  by  the  dead  and  dying;  and  on  they 
went,  their  footsteps  every  where  arrested  by  the  sick, 
the  helpless,  and  the  weak,  whom  the  Mamelukes  had 
dragged  as  far  as  they  could,  and  when  they  could 
drug  them  no  further,  had  left  to  perish  in  those  dismal 
wilds.  The  Fathers  did  all  that  was  in  their  power  for 
each  unhappy  group :  they  baptised  the  catechumens, 
confessed  the  neophytes,  consoled  all  with  the  hope  of 
a  future  life ;  but  they  could  not  remain  with  any,  for 
their  mission  called  them  onward  still.    On  to  those 


CH.  V.]         THE  MAMELUKES  OF  ST.  PAUL'S.  65 

who,  perchance  at  no  great  distance,  lay  dying-  the  same 
miserable  death;  on  to  those  who,  yet  more  unhappy, 
should  live  to  reach  the  city  of  the  captives,  where  chains 
and  cruelty  would  destroy  the  body,  and  despair  or  bad 
"  example  too  probably  kill  the  soul  j  on  even  further  still, 
from  St.  Paul's  itself  to  the  slave-market  of  St.  Paul's 
—  the  city  of  Janeiro — there  to  lay  before  the  governor 
the  outrages  and  wrongs  that  had  been  heaped  upon 
their  people.  They  reached  it  at  length,  exhausted  by 
fatigue  and  sorrow :  yet  even  there  they  might  not 
linger ;  for  the  governor  was  at  All  Saints'*,  and  to  him 
the  authorities  of  the  port  referred  them.  He  may 
have  had  trhe  wish — it  is  not  very  clear  that  he  had  the 
power — to  aid  them  5  though  he  received  them  kindly, 
and  appointed  a  commissary  to  repair  with  them  to  St. 
Paul's  to  assist  in  obtaining  the  liberation  of  the  In- 
dians. A  commissary,  without  troops  to  enforce  his 
orders,  was  little  better  than  a  mockery  at  St.  Paul's. 
The  inhabitants  refused  him  admittance  5  the  Jesuits 
who  accompanied  him  were  cast  into  prison :  nor  was 
it  without  earnest  expostulation  on  the  part  of  their 
provincial  that  their  deliverance  was  effected;  yet  when 
at  last  they  returned  to  their  reduction,  it  was  only  to 
find  their  neophytes — those  for  whose  sake  and  for 
the  sake  of  whose  kindred  they  had  endured  all  this 
toil  and  grief — possessed  with  the  same  injurious  sus- 
picions against  them  as  had  before  prevailed  in  the 
other  reductions ;  and  it  required  all  the  eloquence  of 
their  past  labours,  and  all  the  indignant  remonstrances 
of  Guiay  vara,  to  restore  to  them  the  confidence  of  their 
flock. 

It  would  be  but  a  sad  and  weary  repetition,  to  tell 
of  all  the  reductions  that  one  after  another  fell  a  prey 
to  the  Mameluke  invaders.  The  wretched  inhabitants 
were  driven  from  place  to  place;  and  except  to  ne- 
gotiate their  liberation,  or  to  rescue  them  by  force 
from  the  foe,  their  pastors  never  left  them ;  following 
still  to  heal  the  wounded  heart,  and  to  bind  up  the 
broken   reed,  and  to  keep   alive   the   light   of  faith, 


00  PARAGUAY. 

which,  amid  cruelties  such  as  these,  might  well  be 
supposed  to  burn  dimmer  in  their  bosoms.  In  one 
other  instance  the  poor  victims  rose  against  their  spi- 
ritual father;  but  he  succeeded  in  escaping-  into  the 
woods,  where  some  of  his  brethren  had  taken  refuge 
with  the  remnant  of  their  neophytes.  He  found  both 
pastors  and  people  overwhelmed  with  affliction ;  and  in 
all  that  multitude  there  was  not  one  who  had  not  to 
mourn  the  loss  of  a  wife  or  husband,  sister,  son,  or 
daughter — either  carried  off  in  chains,  or  murdered  in 
cold  blood  before  their  eyes.  Nevertheless,  they  built 
themselves  huts,  and  sowed  what  grain  they  could  col- 
lect; for  they  thought  that  at  least  in  that  vast  solitude 
they  might  hope  to  remain  at  peace ;  but  the  corn  had 
scarcely  sprouted,  when  the  Mamelukes  were  once  more 
upon  their  track,  and  once  more  they  were  compelled 
to  fly.  These  disasters,  and  many  others  as  bad  or 
worse,  at  length  convinced  the  Fathers  that  the  work 
of  civilisation  which  they  had  undertaken  was  simply 
impracticable  so  long  as  they  remained  in  the  vicinity 
of  St.  Paul's.  Their  neophytes  might,  indeed,  and 
often  did,  defend  themselves  eflectually  for  a  time ;  but 
it  was  not  possible  that  a  professedly  rural  population 
should  be  ultimately  successful  against  men  who  were 
for  ever  in  the  saddle,  whose  only  occupation  was  fight- 
ing, and  who  gained  their  livelihood  by  the  spoils  of 
war.  Sometimes  the  Mamelukes  marched  upon  the 
reductions  in  open  guise  of  battle ;  at  others  they  broke 
suddenly  out  of  ambush,  or  obtained  admittance  under 
false  colours  and  on  feigned  pretences.  Not  a  day  or 
an  hour  in  which  they  might  not  be  concealed  within  a 
few  minutes'  march  of  the  mission.  They  came  down 
like  a  whirlwind  on  the  labourers  in  the  sowing  or  the 
harvest  time;  or  they  surprised  them  in  the  festive 
meeting,  or  burst  upon  them  in  the  hour  of  prayer. 
No  Indian  could  feel  certain  that  he  should  reap  what 
he  had  sown,  or  inhabit  the  house  which  he  had  built ; 
nor  could  he  reckon,  either  for  himself  or  for  his  wife 
or  children,  upon  one  hour  of  freedom  beyond  the  one 


CH.  V.]        THE  MAMELUKES  OF  ST.  PAUl/s.  67 

which  he  was  actually  enjoying ;  and,  lest  the  picture 
that  has  heen  drawn  be  considered  an  exaggeration,  it 
maybe  as  well  to  add,  that  in  the  official  account  of  the 
state  of  the  province,  called  especially  De  Missiones,  it 
is  expressly  declared  by  Commissioner  Albear,  that  in 
one  year  (1630)  no  fewer  than  sixty  thousand  Indians, 
and  those  for  the  most  part  torn  from  the  reductions, 
were  publicly  sold  in  the  slave-market  of  Janeiro. 

It  was  plain,  that  with  such  an  enemy  in  the  vici- 
nity and  perpetually  on  the  alert,  the  Indians  never 
could  remain  in  peace;  and  after  much  mature  consi- 
deration, the  Jesuit  Fathers  finally  resolved  to  trans- 
plant their  people  to  a  safer  distance.  One  or  two  of 
the  younger  reductions  were  first  removed :  the  inha- 
bitants were  recent  converts,  and  much  opposed  to  the 
measure,  some  even  absolutely  refused  to  stir ;  but  they 
paid  dearly  for  their  obstinacy,  by  subsequently  falling 
into  the  hands  of  the  Mamelukes.  In  fact,  it  became 
more  and  more  apparent  from  day  to  day  that  the 
whole  line  of  missions  as  originally  laid  down  must  be 
entirely  and  irrevocably  abandoned.  An  army  of  Ma- 
melukes was  pressing  on  to  Villa  Rica  ;  another  swarm 
of  these  banditti  had  appeared  on  the  southern  coast  of 
Brazil,  threatening  ruin  to  the  Spanish  settlements  in 
that  quarter,  as  soon  as  it  had  overleaped  the  barrier  of 
the  missions ;  and  after  one  more  futile  effort  to  obtain 
assistance  from  the  commandant  of  Villa  Rica,  who, 
indeed,  by  this  time  had  quite  enough  to  do  on  his  own 
account  in  keeping  the  enemy  in  check,  the  provincial 
finally  resolved  upon  evacuating  the  reductions  of  Our 
Lady  of  Loreto  and  St.  Ignatius,  which,  having  been 
hitherto  unmolested,  had  been  the  chief  refuge  of  the 
Indians  from  the  ruined  missions. 

Both  these  colonies  were  situate  on  the  Pirapa;  and 
as  they  were  the  last  to  be  abandoned,  so  they  had 
been  the  first  to  be  established  in  the  province  of 
Guayra.  Both,  therefore,  by  this  time  vied  with  the 
Spanish  towns  m  the  size  and  beauty  of  their  public 
buildings  and  the  order   and  cultivation  of  the  sur- 


68  PARAGUAY. 

rounding-  chacaras ;  while  in  both  the  inhabitants  hnd 
become  thoroughly  Christianised,  most  of  them  having 
been  born  in  the  bosom  of  the  Church,  and  all  well 
gTounded  both  in  faith  and  practice.  Of  their  fidelity 
to  their  religion  they  were  now  to  give  a  signal  proof ; 
for,  in  truth,  it  was  no  light  sacrifice  they  were  called 
upon  to  make.  To  leave  the  settlements  when  they  were 
only  just  beginning-  to  taste  the  fruits  of  their  industry ; 
to  begin  again  that  life  of  toil  and  privation  which  had 
already  cost  them  so  dear ;  to  go  forth  once  more  into 
the  wilderness,  and  cultivate  anew  its  arid  wastes,  and 
that  too  with  only  a  bare  possibility  of  reaching  their 
destination  alive,  and  a  certain  prospect  of  danger  and 
misery  to  be  encountered  in  the  attempt,  -  -  all  this 
would  have  been  a  trial  to  the  faith  of  any  people  ;  but 
to  the  Indians,  so  indolent  by  nature,  so  deficient  in 
foresight,  and  so  prone  to  look  no  further  than  the 
exigencies  of  the  hour,  the  struggle  must  have  been 
terrible  indeed.  Yet,  when  Father  Cataldino  assem- 
bled them  in  the  grand  square  and  announced  the  re- 
solution to  which  his  superiors  had  arrived,  instead  of 
murmuring  and  resisting,  as  the  Indians  of  the  younger 
settlements  had  done,  they  with  one  accord  consented 
to  the  measure,  as  the  only  means  that  remained  for 
preserving  their  faith  and  freedom.  "  To  you,  our 
black-robe  Fathers,"  so  they  replied  by  their  most  an- 
cient chieftain,  "  to  you  we  are  indebted  for  our  know- 
ledge of  the  worship  of  the  Almighty  Father,  and  all 
the  blessings  that  knowledge  has  bestowed  upon  us. 
You  have  made  us  Christians, — to  you  we  look  that 
we  may  so  continue  ;  and  therefore,  wherever  you,  our 
Fathers,  go,  we,  your  children,  most  willingly  will  fol- 
low. What  if  hunger,  and  thirst,  and  weariness  befal 
us?  you  will  give  us  of  the  Bread  of  Life,  and  our  hun- 
ger will  be  assuaged ;  and  in  the  strength  of  that  Sa- 
crament our  toils  will  be  forgotten.  And  if  our  loved 
ones  fail  us,  if  our  aged  fathers  and  mothers,  our  young 
wives  and  tender  babes,  sink  beneath  the  sorrows  of 
the  journey,  we  shall  know  that  they  have  but  gone  to 


CH.  V.]  THE  MAMELUKES  OF  ST.  PAUl/s.  69 

the  great  Father  a  little  sooner  than  He  would  other- 
wise have  called  them;  and  we  will  not  weep  for  them 
in  their  graves, — we  will  rather  follow  them  in  our 
thoughts  to  heaven,  and  rejoice  with  them  in  their 
gladness." 

Such,  without  exaggeration,  was  the  noble  spirit  in 
which  these  poor  Indians  met  the  proposition  to  aban- 
don their  smiling  homes ;  and  then,  with  a  holy  insensi- 
bility, which  the  resistance  offered  by  their  countrymen 
under  similar  circumstances  proved  to  be  not  the  effect 
of  constitutional  indifference,  but  an  act  of  supernatural 
virtue,  they  returned  for  the  last  time  to  their  dwell- 
ings, stripped  them  of  all  that  could  tempt  the  rapacity 
of  the  enemy,  packed  up  the  ornaments  and  sacred  ves- 
sels of  the  altar,  and  followed  the  Jesuit  Fathers,  first 
to  the  banks  of  the  Parana,  and  afterwards,  as  they 
had  promised,  wherever  they  chose  to  lead  them. 


70 


CHAPTER  VI. 

THE  RETREAT  ON  THE  PARANA. 

)isasters  and  sufferings  of  the  emigrants.  Spaniards  continue  to 
molest  the  old  reductions.  Flight  of  the  inhabitants.  Kenewed 
attacks  of  the  Mamelukes.  The  Indians,  allowed  the  use  of  fire- 
arms, defeat  the  marauders.  New  settlements.  Intrepidity  of 
the  missionaries.  Bernardin  de  Cardenas,  Bishop  of  Assump- 
tion. His  charges  against  the  Jesuits.  The  fable  of  the  gold- 
mines. Insurrection  of  the  colonists  quelled  by  the  Christian 
natives. 

Threatened  as  they  were  on  the  one  hand  by  the 
Mamelukes,  on  the  other  by  the  wild  Indians,  as  cruel 
and  as  fierce ;  menaced  even  by  the  jealous  avarice  of 
the  Spaniards,  who  could  not  see  without  alarm,  as  it 
bore  on  both  their  present  and  future  interests,  the 
fatal  depopulation  of  the  country  which  such  wholesale 
emigration  must  produce, — the  retreat  of  so  large  a  band 
of  fugitives  was  certainty  a  measure  beyond  all  sober 
calculation  of  success,  and  as  such  may  by  many  have 
been  stigmatised  at  the  time  as  rash  and  ill-advised. 
It  was,  however,  inevitable ;  and,  moreover,  it  was 
planned  with  a  foresight,  and  conducted  with  an  energy, 
a  courage,  and  a  perseverance,  that,  had  its  projectors 
been  warriors  or  statesmen  instead  of  simple  ministers 
of  the  Gospel,  would  have  won  them  honourable  men- 
tion in  the  history  of  the  world. 

Beautiful  from  its  source  to  its  conclusion, — beauti- 
ful, but  full  of  dangers,  is  the  river  to  which  they  were 
about  to  trust  their  fortunes.  Forests, — the  glorious 
forests  of  America, — clothe  a  great  portion  of  its  banks, 
presenting  to  the  dazzled  eye  every  tint  of  colour,  from 
the  sober  green  of  the  primeval  forest  to  the  bright 
blue  and  scarlet,  snowy  white,  and  imperial  purple  of 


CH.  VI.]   THE  RETREAT  ON  THE  PARANA.        71 

the  brilliant  parasites  that  climb  the  trees  and  over- 
top them ;  the  cayman  lurks  by  the  sedgy  shores,  and 
tigers  are  even  found  amid  the  endless  wild-flowers  and 
shining*  evergreens  of  the  thousand  clustering-  islands 
that  fling*  gTace  and  beauty  over  its  waste  of  waters. 
Often,  too,  after  the  rainy  season,  when  the  river  rises 
and  becomes  as  tumultuous  as  a  storm-rocked  ocean, 
fragments  of  these  islets  are  detached  from  the  parent 
soil;  and  being*  kept  tog-ether  in  a  solid  mass  by  the 
thick  interlacing*  of  the  rooted  shrubs,  g-o  wandering- 
down  the  tide  like  g-ig-antic  baskets  of  flowers  and  foliage 
committed  to  its  keeping* ;  nay,  it  has  sometimes  hap- 
pened that  a  tig-er  has  been  made  an  unwilling*  traveller 
on  the  "canielote,"  as  these  floating*  gardens  are  called; 
and  tradition  even  records  how  one  of  these  fierce  tenants 
of  the  woods,  after  a  journey  of  uncounted  leagues, 
arrived  safely  at  Monte  Video,  where  he  gravely  stepped 
on  shore  to  the  unspeakable  astonishment  of  the  terri- 
fied beholders.  Upon  the  banks  of  this  fair  river,  but 
much  nearer  to  its  source  than  to  its  junction  with  the 
Paraguay,  the  Jesuits  with  their  neophytes  encamped ; 
and  here  they  remained  for  weeks  incessantly  employed 
in  building*  balsas  by  means  of  strong  bamboos.  Seven 
thousand  at  last  were  finished,  no  smaller  number  be- 
ing sufficient  for  their  transport ;  and  in  these  they  em- 
barked then*  neophytes,  men,  women,  and  children,  only 
just  in  time  to  escape  the  vengeance  of  the  Mamelukes, 
who  were  already  on  their  track.  Fair  winds  and 
sunny  skies  cheered  them  in  their  enterprise  until  they 
reached  the  Salto-grande,  or  great  cataract  of  the  Pa- 
rana, where  the  river  rolls  impetuously  over  eighteen 
leagues  of  rocky  barricade,  roaring  all  the  while  like 
thunder,  dashing  its  spray  to  the  very  clouds,  and 
sweeping  all  before  it  as  it  leaps  madly  down  into  the 
dark  and  boiling  abyss  below.  Here  they  were  com- 
pelled to  disembark;  and  three  hundred  empty  balsas 
were  launched  upon  the  rapids,  in  hopes  that  some 
among  them,  clearing  the  fall  uninjured,  might  enable 
them  to  proceed  without  further  delay  upon  their  voyage. 


72  PARAGUAY. 

For  one  breathless  moment  of  suspense  the  light  skiffs 
seemed  to  play  and  tumble  on  the  seething*  waters ;  then 
they  were  suddenly' lifted  over;  and  when  the  spec- 
tators looked  again,  they  beheld  them  dashed  into  a 
thousand  pieces,  and  floating*  in  fragments  far  away  on 
the  stream  below.  All  hope  of  continuing  their  voyag*e 
being  thus  destroyed,  the  remaining  boats  were  per- 
force abandoned;  and  every  man  took  his  staff  and 
bundle,  every  woman  her  most  helpless  child ;  and  so, 
with  stout  yet  saddened  hearts,  they  set  off  for  the  foot 
of  the  cataract,  where  all  their  toil  and  trouble  were  to 
commence  again. 

For  eight  whole  days  they  wandered  thus,  feeding 
on  roots  and  berries,  and  such  wild  game  as  their  arrows 
could  bring  down,  and  drinking  of  the  chance  torrent 
by  the  way,  or  of  dew  deep  garnered  in  the  cool  cup- 
like leaves  that  grow  beneath  the  shadows  of  the  forest. 
No  accessible  path  lay  parallel  to  the  river ;  nothing 
therefore  remained  for  them  but  to  plunge  boldly  inland, 
their  route  taking  them  sometimes  over  sands  burning 
beneath  the  rays  of  the  southern  sun,  sometimes  along* 
precipices  where  one  false  step  would  have  dashed  them 
to  their  doom;  but  oftener  still  through  dense  and  tangled 
forests,  where  trees,  the  growth  of  a  thousand  years, 
were  laced  and  interlaced  with  creepers  which,  thick 
and  strong  as  the  cables  of  a  man-of-war,  yielded  no 
passage  excepting  to  the  hatchet;  and  when  at  last,  and 
after  the  loss  of  numbers  who  died  by  the  way  of  famine 
and  fatigue,  the  poor  wanderers  reached  their  destina- 
tion, it  was  only,  as  has  been  said,  to  begin  again  the 
work  of  preparation  on  which  so  much  time  and  toil 
had  already  been  expended.  With  weakened*  forces 
and  diminished  hopes  they  had  again  to  encamp  for 
weeks,  while  they  cut  down  trees,  and  fashioned  them 
to  their  purpose,  burying*  hundreds  all  the  time  whom 
starvation  and  overwork  had  hurried  to  the  g*rave.  In 
defiance,  however,  of  difficulties  and  disasters,  the  re- 
quired number  of  balsas  was  in  the  end  completed ;  and 
then  the  Fathers  arranged  the  march  by  dividing  the 


CH.  VI.]    THE  RETREAT  OX  THE  PARANA.        73 

Indians  into  three  large  bodies,  of  which  the  first  was 
to  penetrate  yet  further  inland,  the  second  to  coast 
along-  the  river,  and  the  third  to  float  slowly  down  its 
waters.  To  these  last  the  easiest  lot  might  seem  to 
have  been  apportioned ;  yet  it  was  not  so  in  fact,  as  the 
river-passage  included  many  dangers  from  which  the 
others  would  be  exempted.  The  great  fall,  indeed,  had 
been  passed ;  but,  besides  sunken  rocks  and  cross  cur- 
rents occasioned  by  the  islands,  there  were  frequent 
rapids,  smaller  than  the  first,  yet  perilous  withal; 
and  many  a  boat  was  sunk,  and  many  a  life  was  lost, 
ere  they  succeeded  in  reaching  their  destination. 
Patience  and  perseverance,  however,  had  their  reward ; 
and  the  Jesuits  had  at  last  the  satisfaction  of  seeing 
their  scattered  neophytes  assembled  on  the  banks  of  the 
Jubaburrus,  a  little  stream  flowing  westwards  into  the 
Parana. 

They  had  been  watched  with  jealous  eyes,  plotted 
against,  thwarted  as  much  as  it  was  in  the  power  of  their 
enemies  to  thwart  them, — all,  indeed,  but  attacked  up- 
on the  road  ;  and  if  something  of  honourable  pride  were 
mingled  with  the  first  consciousness  of  success  in  the 
bosom  of  Montoya,  the  projector  and  chief  director  of 
the  expedition,  it  was  soon  overpowered  by  a  feeling*  of 
sadness  when  he  came  to  muster  the  survivors,  and 
found  that,  out  of  the  vast  multitudes  who  had  peopled 
the  old  missions  of  the  Guayra,  there  were  but  some 
few  poor  thousands  left  to  answer  to  the  call.  Happily 
they  had  been  guided  by  Providence  to  a  fair  and  fertile 
territory  ;  although,  with  all  their  endeavours,  they  had 
much  privation  to  endure  until  the  coming  of  the  har- 
vest,— the  Jesuits  meanwhile  doing  what  they  could  to- 
wards supplying  the  wants  of  their  neophytes  by  devot- 
ing to  the  purchase  of  corn  and  cattle  the  salaries  they 
received  as  missionaries  of  Guayra.  And  now  it  was 
that  the  Spaniards  might  have  learned  at  last,  had  they 
been  capable  of  receiving  the  lesson,  the  real  value  of 
those  reductions  which  they  had  so  ungenerously  re- 
fused to  defend ;  for  no  sooner  was  this  barrier  removed 


74  PA  HAG  U  AY. 

than  their  own  immediate  possessions  were  overrun  by 
the  Mamelukes,  conjointly  with  hosts  of  pagan  Indians, 
who  were  only  too  happy  to  avenge  their  own  wrongs 
by  helping-  the  Christians  to  destroy  one  another.  Pro- 
vince after  province  was  laid  desolate,  city  after  city 
became  the  scene  of  their  depredations,  and  both  Cividad 
and  Villa  Rica  were  sacked  and  destroyed,  notwith- 
standing the  heroic  efforts  of  the  Bishop  of  Assumption, 
who  went  out  himself  to  intercede  in  their  behalf ;  and 
nevertheless,  untaught  by  all  that  had  come  and  gone, 
the  Spaniards,  incredible  as  it  may  seem,  still  continued 
to  harass  the  reductions  which  remained,  by  laying  claim, 
on  all  sorts  of  unjust  pretences,  to  the  personal  services 
of  the  inhabitants.  Once,  twice,  they  asserted  these 
pretensions,  the  third  time  they  drove  the  Jesuits  from 
their  missions,  and  replaced  them  with  secular  priests  ; 
who,  although  actuated  by  the  same  good-will  towards 
the  Indian  converts,  did  not  possess  the  same  power  for 
their  protection  as  the  Fathers  of  the  Society,  whose 
authority  was  derived  direct  from  the  throne  itself. 

The  experiment  had  well-nigh  proved  fatal  to  the 
reductions.  Terrified  at  the  prospect  of  the  slavery 
which  they  felt  too  surely  to  be  in  preparation  for  them, 
the  inhabitants  every  where  fled  into  the  desert ;  and 
when  at  a  little  later  period  the  royal  audience  of  La 
Plata  commanded  the  restoration  of  the  Jesuits,  it  cost 
the  Fathers  far  more  time  and  trouble  to  lure  back  the 
frightened  and  indignant  savages  to  their  homes  than 
it  had  taken  to  assemble  them  in  the  beginning.  Pre- 
vious, however,  to  this  decision,  the  Jesuits  had  ap- 
pealed both  to  Rome  and  to  Madrid  against  the  assaults 
of  the  Mamelukes  and  the  iniquities  of  the  slave-trade, 
Father  Tano  having*  been  sent  to  the  one  court,  and 
Montoya  to  the  other.  Both  returned  with  favourable 
answers,  the  rescript  from  Spain  containing  an  especial 
clause,  by  which  all  Indians  converted  by  the  Jesuits, 
whether  of  the  province  of  Tape  or  of  the  Parana  and 
Uruguay,  were  declared  immediate  vassals  of  the  crown, 
and  as  such  invested  with   the   same  immunity  from 


CH.  VI.]        THE  RETREAT  ON  THE  PARANA.  75 

personal  service  as  was  already  enjoyed  by  the  Guarani 
Indians.  The  amount  of  tribute  to  be  paid  by  the  re- 
ductions was  settled  at  the  same  time ;  although,  in  con- 
sequence of  the  poverty  resulting"  from  recent  disasters, 
it  was  not  actually  levied  until  the  year  1649,  just  nine 
years  after  it  had  been  regulated  by  law.  The  publica- 
tion of  this  edict  caused  immense  commotion,  and  the 
more  so  because,  over  and  above  the  especial  privileges 
conferred  upon  Indians  converted  by  the  Jesuits,  it  ab- 
solutely forbade  and  declared  unlawful  all  buying-  and 
selling  of  natives  for  the  future.  The  merchants  raved 
against  the  Jesuits  as  the  authors  of  this  blow  to  the 
slave-trade ;  while,  on  their  part,  the  Fathers  declared  to 
a  man  that  they  would  do  their  duty,  and  resolutely  en- 
force the  law  by  every  means  in  their  power.  So  furi- 
ous was  the  excitement,  that  their  college  at  Janeiro 
narrowly  escaped  being  sacked ;  they  were  violently  ex- 
pelled from  that  of  St.  Paul's  ;  Montoya  found  it  neces- 
sary to  retire  for  a  time  to  Buenos  Ayres;  and  the 
vicar-general  nearly  lost  his  life  in  the  tumult  which 
followed  his  promulgation  of  the  law. 

In  the  midst  of  all  these  commotions  the  Mamelukes 
had  not  been  idle ;  and,  encouraged  by  their  successful 
destruction  of  the  Spanish  towns,  the}'  pushed  on  to 
such  of  the  reductions  as  had  hitherto  escaped  their 
fury.  At  that  of  St.  Theresa,  after  having  despatched 
their  prisoners  to  Brazil,  and  done  all  the  mischief  in 
their  power,  they  had  the  audacity  to  request  the  Jesuit 
Father  of  the  ruined  mission  to  say  Mass  for  them  in 
the  church.  It  was  not  an  opportunity  to  be  neglected ; 
he  accordingly  consented ;  and  the  instant  the  Divine 
Sacrifice  was  concluded,  he  ascended  the  pulpit,  and 
there  upbraided  them  in  the  strongest  terms  for  their 
unchristian  conduct.  The  barbarians  listened  to  him 
unmoved ;  they  were  too  far  gone  in  wickedness  to  be 
either  excited  to  anger  or  softened  to  repentance  by  a 
recapitulation  of  their  crimes ;  and  the  only  symptom 
they  gave  of  a  better  feeling,  was  the  presenting  the 
Father  who  had  so  earnestly  addressed  them  with  the 


76  PARAGUAY. 

Indian  acolyths  who  had  served  him  at  the  altar.  The 
reductions  on  the  Uruguay  were  the  next  to  suffer; 
although,  being-  numerous  and  long-established,  they 
made  a  vigorous  defence.  But  the  struggle  was  too 
unequal.  The  neophytes  would  not  make  use  of  poi- 
soned arrows,  nor  could  they  lessen  the  number  of  tiie 
foe  by  killing  such  captives  as  they  could  not  prevent 
escaping — a  practice  constantly  and  unscrupulously  re- 
sorted to  by  the  Mamelukes.  Fire-arms  likewise,  as  it 
has  been  already  observed,  the  Indians  were  not  per- 
mitted to  possess ;  and  thus,  forbidden  to  wag-e  war  in 
a  Christian  manner,  and  unwilling  to  do  so  after  the 
fashion  of  savages,  they  were  necessarily  placed  at  a 
serious  disadvantage.  Retreat  became  the  only  alter- 
native ;  and  this  time  the  Jesuits  secured  the  safety  of 
their  colonies  by  locating  them  in  that  part  of  the 
province  (entre  Ilios)  which,  being  surrounded  by  the 
Parana  on  the  one  side  and  by  the  Uruguay  on  the 
other,  possesses  a  natural  barrier  against  all  invasion. 
About  the  same  time  also  Father  Montoya,  after  in- 
numerable negotiations,  succeeded  in  obtaining  an  edict 
from  Philip  IV.  permitting  the  use  of  fire-arms  in  the 
reductions ;  and  from  that  period  a  feeling  of  confidence 
both  in  the  government  and  in  themselves  seems  to 
have  grown  up  among  the  Indians,  and  given  them  new 
vigour  in  their  own  defence ;  we  consequently  hear 
less  and  less  of  the  Mamelukes  as  our  history  proceeds. 
The  neophytes  fought  bravely,  and  repeatedly  repulsed 
them ;  and  in  one  of  the  last  great  battles  in  which  they 
measured  their  strength  with  these  inveterate  enemies 
of  their  race,  succeeded  in  so  thoroughly  routing  them, 
that  the  death  of  Father  Alfaro,  who  had  been  shot  in 
cold  blood  before  the  action  by  a  Mameluke  soldier, 
was  terribly  avenged. 

Having  thus  given  good  proof  of  their  valour,  and 
exhibited  a  discipline  and  steadiness  in  war  in  which 
the  Spanish  mercenary  was  often  deficient,  the  Indians 
were  continually  called  upon  to  serve  in  the  king's 
army ;  and  in  more  than  one  rebellion  of  the  province 


CH.  VI.]    THE  RETREAT  ON  THE  PARANA.       77 

the  governor  owed  its  suppression  in  a  great  measure 
to  their  strength  and  numbers.  All  this,  however, 
was  the  work  of  time;  and  while  the  consolidation 
and  defence  of  the  reductions  already  established  gave 
full  occupation  to  not  a  few  of  the  Jesuit  Fathers, 
others  were  as  actively  employed  in  the  formation  of 
new  settlements.  Father  Antonio  Palermo,  in  company 
with  a  party  of  fervent  neophytes,  had  already  coasted 
along-  the  Parana,  and  returned  with  a  multitude  of 
converted  Indians,  whom  he  speedily  placed  in  a  new 
reduction ;  others  sought  out  the  poor  Indians  who  had 
fled  to  the  woods  and  deserts  from  the  fury  of  the 
Mamelukes,  and  were  in  danger  of  relapsing  into  their 
primitive  barbarism ;  while  other.-,  again,  at  the  earnest 
request  of  the  Bishop  of  Tucuman,  endeavoured  to  carry 
the  Gospel  into  the  wilds  of  Chaco.  The  nature  of  this 
country  rendered  it  particularly  difficult  of  access,  its 
vast  and  trackless  plains,  which  in  summer  were  one 
arid  waste,  being  in  winter  flooded  like  a  sea.  The 
savages  themselves  were  cannibals,  and,  as  a  matter  of 
course,  the  first  party  of  Jesuits  who  ventured  among 
them  were  put  to  death,  one  of  their  companions  having 
first  been  devoured  before  their  eyes ;  but  the  two  who 
followed  had  better  success.  These  were  the  Fathers 
Pastor  and  Cerqueira,  and  they  resolved  first  to  seek 
out  the  Abipones,  who  dwelt  on  the  eastern  extremity 
of  the  desert;  but  falling  in  with  a  tribe  of  the  Mata- 
ranes  by  the  way,  they  succeeded  by  kind  and  gentle 
perseverance  in  winning  their  confidence.  Nor  did  the 
Abipones  themselves  prove  less  accessible  to  kindness, 
although  they  were  among  the  fiercest  and  most  in- 
tractable of  the  American  savages,  being"  absolutely  in 
a.  state  of  primeval  wildness  when  Father  Pastor  thus 
succeeded  in  penetrating  into  their  haunts.  No  sooner 
did  they  perceive  him  coming  from  afar,  than  they 
hastened  to  meet  him ;  and  with  skins  spotted  and 
painted  according  to  their  notions  of  a  warrior,  eyes 
darting  wild  and  ferocious  glances,  hair  long,  matted  and 
dishevelled,  and  clubs  and  javelins,  which  they  whirled 


78  PARAGUAY. 

with  savage  outcries  round  his  head,  they  rushed  in 
upon  the  Father,  and  surrounded  him  and  his  com- 
panions on  all  sides.  Had  he  shown  any  sign  of  alarm, 
he  would  probably  have  been  murdered  on  the  instant ; 
as  it  was,  he  explained  to  them  his  errand,  at  the  same 
time  declaring  his  confidence  in  God  and  in  their  good 
faith  as  simply  and  as  quietly  as  if  they  had  been  but  a 
band  of  children  whom  he  had  interrupted  in  their  play. 
The  effect  was  magical.  Fear  would  have  provoked 
violence,  defiance  would  have  insured  it ;  but  such  calm 
and  intrepid  courage  astonished  and  overawed  them,  as 
a  thing  which  they  had  never  witnessed  before,  and 
which  surpassed  their  comprehension;  and  throwing 
down  their  weapons,  they  welcomed  their  visitor  with  a 
shout  of  joy.  From  that  moment  he  was  their  guide, 
their  councillor,  and  their  chosen  friend.  He  instructed 
them  in  the  rudiments  of  civilisation;  he  taught  them 
to  abhor  their  savage  banqueting  on  human  flesh ;  he 
studied  the  bent  of  their  minds  and  dispositions,  and 
succeeded  at  last  in  at  least  partially  reconciling  them 
to  the  settled  life  of  the  converted  Indians. 

So  far  every  thing  had  proceeded  prosperously;  when, 
unfortunately,  the  numbers  of  the  Jesuits,  at  all  tinges 
too  small  for  the  work  in  which  they  were  engaged, 
were  still  further  diminished  by  an  order  from  the 
Council  of  the  Indies  forbidding  any  save  Spanish  sub- 
jects to  preach  in  the  colonies  of  Spain.  This  restric- 
tion was  caused  entirely  by  the  intrigues  of  those  who 
sought  by  all  ways  ano^means  to  hinder  the  formation  of 
new  reductions,  seeing-  that  they  invariably  became  so 
many  harbours  of  refuge  from  the  iniquities  of  the  slave- 
trade.  It  was  subsequently  rescinded ;  but  in  the  mean 
time  it  operated  with  fatal  effect  alike  upon  the  colo- 
nists by  whom  it  had  been  prescribed,  and  upon  the 
Indians,  who  were  the  immediate  sufferers ;  for  the 
result  was  so  greatly  to  reduce  the  Jesuits  in  number, 
that,  in  order  to  supply  the  wants  of  the  old  reductions, 
it  was  found  necessary  to  withdraw  Father  Pastor  from 
those  whom  after  so  much  risk   and  trouble  he  was 


CH.  VI.]   THE  RETREAT  ON  THE  PARANA.       79 

just  beginning'  to  civilise*  They  parted  from  liim  with 
tears,  and  for  days  and  months  looked  anxiously  for 
his  return  5  but  indignant  at  last  at  the  long-  delay, 
they  became  the  worst  enemies  the  Spanish  colonists 
had  yet  encountered,  and  taught  them  by  sad  experi- 
ence all  the  inestimable  advantages  that  might  have 
resulted  from  the  establishment  of  permanent  reduc- 
tions in  their  deserts.  They  had  not  yet,  however, 
given  this  terrible  lesson  to  the  Spaniards,  when  the 
enemies  of  the  Jesuits  received  an  important  addition 
to  their  ranks  in  the  person  of  Bernardin  de  Cardenas, 
the  new  Bishop  of  Assumption,  who  threw  all  the 
weight  and  influence  of  his  position  into  the  scale  in 
favour  of  the  slave-trade.  He  was  a  man  of  brilliant 
talents,  but  irrepressible  ambition  j  possessed  of  every 
quality  calculated  to  gain  popularity  with  the  multi- 
tude, and  never  scrupling  to  prostitute  his  highest  gifts 
to  win  their  adulation.  An  informality  in  his  conse- 
cration had  rendered  it  in  the  opinion  of  many  null  and 
void ;  and  the  question  of  its  validity  having  been  re- 
ferred by  himself  to  one  of  the  colleges  of  the  Jesuits, 
they  were  conscientiously  compelled  to  declare  against 
it.  From  that  moment  he  never  ceased  attempting  by 
open  violence  or  secret  intrigue  to  drive  them  from  the 
city.  The  governor,  a  weak  but  conscientious  man,  in 
vain  endeavoured  to  oppose  him  5  nature  had  especially 
gifted  him  for  the  office  of  a  demagogue,  and  he  became 
the  idol  of  the  colonists.  He  addressed  himself  at  once 
to  the  one  darling-  interest  of  their  narrow  hearts,  and 
worked  up  afresh  all  the  old  leaven  of  jealousy  that  lay 
fermenting  in  their  bosoms  by  denouncing  the  Jesuits 
us  the  Quixotic  apostles  of  Indian  liberty.  It  was  pre- 
cisely their  best  title  to  the  love  and  admiration  of  all 
good  men  5  but  it  was  also,  and  Don  Bernardin  knew 
it  well,  that  which  excited  the  fear  and  hatred  of  every 
slave-holder  in  the  land.  One  hint  was  sufficient  for 
such  an  audience ;  and  when  he  had  succeeded  in  tho- 
roughly rousing  the  passions  of  the  multitude,  he  sud- 
denly assumed  an  air  of  inspired  authority,  declared 


80  PARAGUAY. 

aloud  his  hypocritical  regrets  for  the  step  he  was  com- 
pelled to  take,  and  then  and  there  excommunicated  the 
whole  body  of  the  Jesuits,  forbidding-  the  faithful  to 
hold  further  intercourse  with  them.  The  governor  at- 
tempted to  interfere ;  but  the  citizens  to  a  man  sided 
with  their  Bishop.  He  had  promised  them  the  slave- 
service  of  the  Indians  as  soon  as  the  Jesuits  should  be 
driven  from  their  reductions ;  he  had  hinted,  more- 
over, at  gold-mines,  which,  according*  to  him,  lay  hidden 
in  their  missions;  and  the  idea  was  far  too  tempting 
to  these  worshippers  of  mammon  to  be  easily  relin- 
quished. They  rose  as  by  one  accord  in  defence  of  the 
man  who  had  called  up  these  golden  visions  before  their 
eyes;  and  it  was  by  force  alone  that  Don  Gregorio 
succeeded  in  the  end  in  expelling  him  from  the  city 
which  he  had  demoralised  by  his  ambition  and  scan- 
dalised by  his  crimes. 

But  the  serpent  had  left  his  sting  behind  him.  He 
had  whispered  of  gold-mines ;  and  gold-mines  of  course 
the  colonists  ever  afterwards  clamorously  affirmed  to 
be  actually  existing  among  the  mountains  where  the 
Jesuits  had  fixed  their  abodes.  Henceforth  no  story 
was  too  ridiculous  for  promulgation,  or  too  extravagant 
for  belief;  and  no  witness,  however  despicable  his  cha- 
racter, but  was  regarded  as  trustworthy,  so  long  as  he 
gave  his  testimony  in  favour  of  this  imaginary  El-do- 
rado. One  man  actually  deposed  on  oath  that  he  had 
met  an  Indian  bearing  three  large  sacks  of  gold  upon 
his  shoulders,  being  a  present  from  the  provincial  of  the 
Society  to  the  colleges  of  Cordova  and  Assumption. 
The  governor  treated  this  base  perjurer  with  the  con- 
tempt which  he  deserved,  dismissing  him  with  a  satirical 
assurance  that  he  was  greatly  edified  by  the  disinter- 
estedness of  the  provincial,  who  out  of  so  large  a  trea- 
sure had  reserved  nothing  for  himself;  and  at  the  same 
time  gently  hinting  his  suspicions,  that  had  his  informer 
been  similarly  circumstanced,  he  would  hardly  have 
practised  as  much  self-denial.  Notwithstanding  this 
summary  dismissal  of  the  subject  on  the  part  of  the 


CH.  VI.]    THE  RETREAT  ON  THE  PARANA.        81 

governor,  the  report  had  spread  too  far  and  sunk  too 
deep  to  be  thus  easily  disposed  of.  It  had  reached  the 
ears  of  the  Council  of  the  Indies,  and  had  even  found 
an  echo  in  the  bosoms  of  the  chief  ministers  of  Spain 
itself;  it  was  therefore  necessary ,  if  only  for  the  sake 
of  the  accused,  that  it  should  be  sifted  to  the  bottom. 
So  the  Society  thought  and  felt ;  and  they  offered  ac- 
cordingly to  evacuate  the  reductions  with  all  their  In- 
dians, in  order  to  leave  them  more  thoroughly  open  to 
the  investigation  of  their  foes.  This  proposition  was 
not  accepted  in  the  letter,  but  an  officer  was  appointed 
to  visit  the  reductions  in  which  the  gold-mines  were 
supposed  to  be  concealed;  and  although  the  man 
who  pretended  to  have  seen  them,  and  who  was  to  be 
brought  to  the  spot  as  a  witness,  contrived  to  make  his 
escape  on  the  way,  the  visitor  still  proceeded,  and  never 
left  the  scene  of  his  scrutiny  until  he  and  his  assistants 
had  searched  both  hill  and  valley  in  vain  for  gold.  A 
second  and  a  third  commission  to  the  same  place,  to 
other  places,  to  every  place,  in  fact,  pointed  out  by 
the  maintainers  of  the  golden  theory,  were  at  different 
times  appointed,  but  always  with  the  same  result;  and 
after  years  thus  spent  in  useless  investigations  and  ha- 
rassing suspicions,  some  of  the  most  vehement  accusers 
of  the  Jesuits,  unwilling  to  die,  as  thej  had  lived,  in 
the  propagation  of  a  lie,  deposed  upon  their  death- beds 
to  the  utter  falsity  of  the  accusation,  and  the  sordid 
motives  for  which  it  had  been  invented.  The  innocence 
of  the  Jesuits  was  thus  clearly  established ;  but  the  con- 
secjuences  of  the  accusation  were  not  so  easily  to  be 
undone.  Calumny  against  any  body  of  men  almost 
invariably  proves  an  undying  thing;  and  such  it  now 
became  to  them.  A  slur  had  been  cast  upon  their 
labours  in  behalf  of  the  poor  Indians  —  a  slur  most 
perseveringly  maintained  by  those  who  best  knew  its 
falsehood  ;  the  love  of  riches  and  the  love  of  power  had 
been  put  forward  as  their  motives  for  deeds  which  the 
love  of  God  could  alone  have  prompted,  and  His  power 
alone  have  made  successful ;  and  from  that  moment 
Q 


82  PARAGUAY. 

they  were  watched  by  the  Council  of  the  Indies,  and 
by  an  ever-increasing-  party  in  the  court  of  Spain,  with 
a  jealousy  which  never  rested  until  it  had  expelled  them 
from  their  missions. 

The  immediate  result,  however,  of  the  inquiries  was 
to  reinstate  the  Jesuits  in  the  good  opinion  both  of  the 
home  government  and  of  the  local  authorities,  and  peace 
was  restored  between  them  and  their  traducers  ;  but  it 
was  only  for  the  moment.  By  a  most  ill-timed  courtesy, 
Don  Bernardin  was  permitted  to  return  from  exile ;  and 
the  governor  dying-  suddenly,  the  Bishop,  with  his  usual 
promptitude,  seized  upon  the  government,  and  drove  the 
Jesuits  from  the  city.  Against  this  violence  they  pro- 
tested, by  naming  Father  Nolasco.  Superior  of  the  Order 
of  Mercy,  as  their  judge-conservator,  to  examine  into 
the  charges  preferred  against  them  $  and  his  sentence 
in  their  favour  having  been  confirmed  b}r  that  of  the 
royal  audience  of  Chareas,  and  by  the  decision  likewise 
of  the  commissary-general,  whom  the  King  of  Spain 
had  deputed  to  judge  between  them,  they  were  restored 
by  royal  command  to  their  college,  and  Don  Bernardin 
deposed  from  his  bishopric  by  the  Pope,  who  bestowed 
it  in  1666  on  Don  Gabriel  de  Guillestoqui.  Even  six 
years  before  this  restoration  to  their  rights,  the  Fathers 
of  the  Society  had  had  an  opportunity,  and  had  not  re- 
fused it,  of  doing  signal  service  to  their  enemies.  The 
Indians  in  and  about  the  city  of  Assumption  had  risen 
in  a  body  against  their  Spanish  masters,  and  after  mas- 
sacring the  principal  inhabitants  in  cold  blood,  had 
taken  possession  of  the  town.  There  was  no  time,  had 
there  been  the  means,  for  the  raising  of  troops,  and  the 
governor  was  forced  to  fly;  but  his  situation  was  no 
sooner  made  known  in  the  reductions  than  a  body  of 
neophytes  were  sent  to  aid  him ;  with  their  assistance 
the  insurrection  was  quelled,  the  Spaniards  delivered 
from  their  peril,  and  the  governor  enabled  to  return  in 
peace  to  his  rained  city.  The  conduct  of  the  Indians 
on  this  occasion  was,  or  at  any  rate  ought  to  have 
been,  an  unanswerable  argument  in  favour  of  the  sys- 


CH.  VI.]    THE  RETREAT  ON  THE  PARANA.        83 

tern  which  the  Jesuits  had  so  earnestly  advocated.  The 
Indians  of  the  cncomiendas  were  in  open  and  successful 
insurrection  when  the  Indians  of  the  reductions  fought 
in  favour  of  peace  and  order  side  by  side  with  men  who, 
far  as  the  poles  asunder  from  them  in  country,  habits, 
and  education,  yet  possessed  an  overwhelming  claim 
upon  their  sympathy  and  co-operation  in  the  Christian 
creed  which  they  professed  in  common. 

But  although  the  enslaved  Indians  had  been  thus 
subdued,  those  who  were  yet  unreclaimed  from  pagan- 
ism continued  to  harass  the  Spaniards  in  all  directions. 
Force  of  arms  and  peaceful  treaty  were  equally  unavail- 
ing. If  they  were  defeated  on  the  eve,  it  was  only  to 
do  battle  again  on  the  morrow ;  and  if  they  made  peace 
when  compelled  by  reverses  to  simulate  friendship,  it 
was  but  to  break  it  the  moment  that  the  chances  of  war 
were  in  their  favour.  The  false  policy  of  the  colonists 
now  reacted  fatally  upon  themselves ;  for  as  the  Indian 
had  found  neither  faith  nor  honest  dealing  among-  them, 
so  he  would  give  them  neither  faith  nor  honest  dealing 
in  return.  In  this  dilemma,  the  governor  turned  for 
assistance  to  the  Jesuits ;  two  of  them  instantly  under- 
took a  mission  of  peace,  and  throwing  themselves  into 
the  midst  of  the  savages,  pledged  their  word  for  the 
present  sincerity  of  their  countrymen.  It  was  enough  : 
the  Jesuits,  at  least,  had  been  always  true  to  their  pro- 
fessions, and  the  Indians  could  not  refuse  to  believe  them 
now.  A  truce  for  six  years  was  offered  and  accepted, 
and  this  time  the  savages  kept  their  word;  for  they 
had  pledged  it  to  men  who  never  had,  and,  well  they 
knew,  who  never  would  deceive  them.  The  Spaniards 
profited  by  this  long  interval  of  repose  to  repair  their 
late  disasters;  and  the  Jesuits  also  put  it  to  use  in 
another  fashion,  by  penetrating  deeper  into  the  woods 
and  wilds  of  Paraguay  than  they  ever  had  done  before, 
and  thus  giving  wider  extension  to  their  schemes  for 
the  conversion  and  civilisation  of  the  natives. 


84 


CHAPTER  VII. 

THE  FINAL  BLOW. 

Martyrdoms  of  Fathers  Ortiz  and  Solinas.  Success  of  Father  de  Arce". 
Martyrdoms  of  Fathers  Cavallero,  de  Arce,  Blende,  Sylva,  Maco, 
and  thirty  neophytes.  Antequera  usurps  the  government ;  per- 
secutes the  Jesuits.  His  repentance  and  death.  Rebels  a  second 
time  defeated  by  the  Christian  Indians.  Renewal  of  charges 
against  the  missionaries.  Martyrdom  of  Father  Lizardi.  Treaty 
of  exchange  between  Spain  and  Portugal ;  forced  emigration  of 
the  natives.  Persecution  and  deportation  of  the  Jesuits.  Present 
state  of  Paraguay.  Review  of  the  labours  of  the  Society  in  that 
country. 

It  will  be  remembered,  that  after  Father  Pastor's  first 
successful  attempt  with  the  fierce  savages  of  Chaco,  he 
had  been  compelled,  by  an  unfortunate  diminution  in  the 
number  of  the  missionaries,  to  withdraw  from  his  new 
reductions;  and  that  the  Indians,  thus  deserted,  had 
become  the  most  deadly  enemies  with  which  the  Spanish 
colonists  had  yet  been  called  upon  to  contend.  For 
nearly  twenty  years  the  province  of  Tucuman  was  con- 
tinually devastated  by  their  incursions ;  and  although 
the  Jesuits  had  tried  again  and  again,  they  had  never 
succeeded,  during  all  that  period,  in  recovering  the  con- 
fidence so  unhappily  forfeited.  However,  in  the  year 
1683,  with  which  the  present  chapter  opens,  two  of  the 
Fathers,  Ruiz  and  Solinas,  with  a  zealous  ecclesiastic 
of  the  name  of  Ortiz  de  Zarate,  set  forth  from  Jujuy  for 
the  purpose  of  once  more  resuming  the  interrupted  mis- 
sion. In  sixteen  days  they  reached  the  "  Santa/'  called 
par  excellence  "the  Mountain  of  Chaco,"  which  on  clear 
days  commands  an  unbroken  prospect  of  the  coun- 
try towards  which  they  were  directing  their  steps ;  yet 
when  they  attained  the  summit,  although  the  sun  was 
bright  above  their  heads  vast  dense  clouds  of  mist,  roll- 


CH.  VII.]  THE  FINAL  BLOW.  85 

ing  beneath  their  feet,  shut  out  the  landscape  entirely 
from  their  view.  It  was  a  fitting*  omen  for  the  com- 
mencement of  a  mission  which  was  to  open  heaven  to 
those  who  undertook  it,  but  to  leave  the  people  for 
whose  sake  it  was  undertaken  still  wrapt  in  the  clouds 
of  idolatry  and  error.  They  succeeded,  indeed,  in  build- 
ing- a  chapel,  and  inducing  some  of  the  Indians  to  settle 
peaceably  around  it ;  but  one  mornings  at  the  dawn  of 
day,  when  they  were  about  to  offer  the  divine  sacrifice, 
a  body  of  savages  rushed  from  the  woods  with  fearful 
shouts  and  cries  of  triumph,  killed  Fathers  Ortiz  and 
Solinas  by  repeated  blows  of  their  macanas,  or  clubs, 
and  then,  cutting  off  their  heads,  carried  them  away  to 
make  drinking-cups  of  the  skulls.  Father  Ruiz  hap- 
pened fortunately  to  be  absent,  having  been  sent  to  Tu- 
cuman  for  provisions ;  but  as  he  was  known  to  be  re- 
turning, a  party  was  sent  out  to  intercept  him.  By  a 
special  protection  of  Providence  it  missed  him;  and 
when  lie  arrived  at  the  reduction,  ignorant  of  all  that 
had  occurred  during  his  absence,  he  found  it  lonely  and 
^  deserted ;  the  inhabitants  driven  by  terror  into  the  woods, 
'  and  the  mutilated  bodies  of  the  martyrs  lying  cold  and 
bloody  on  the  altar-steps. 

The  news  of  this  catastrophe  only  fired  the  Jesuits 
with  fresh  enthusiasm ;  and  a  college  was  soon  erected 
at  Tarija,  on  the  borders  of  the  province  of  Charcas,  to 
serve  as  a  depot  of  missionaries  destined  for  the  desert. 
Father  de  Arce  was  appointed  to  lead  them  on ;  and 
twice  he  tried,  and  twice  he  failed,  after  having  been 
each  time  cheered  on  at  the  outset  by  some  delusive 
prospect  of  success.  The  enterprise  was  then  abandoned 
for  the  time,  and  he  turned  his  steps  towards  the  nations 
of  the  Chiquitos,  or  Little  Indians;  a  name  derived,  not 
from  the  shortness  of  their  stature,  but  from  the  ex- 
tremely diminutive  appearance  of  their  dwelling's.  Di- 
vided into  innumerable  small  tribes,  this  people  inhabited 
a  vast  extent  of  country,  which,  watered  by  the  rivers 
Guapay  and  Pirapiti,  is  broken  by  mountains  and  over- 
shadowed with  forests.     They  were  brave,  active,  and 


86  PARAGUAY. 

energetic ;  and  having*  up  to  the  period  of  Father  de 
Arce's  visit  been  in  a  state  of  perpetual  hostility  with 
the  Spaniards,  had  formed  the  subjects  of  a  lucrative 
traffic  to  the  inhabitants  of  Santa  Cruz,  where  a  regular 
company  had  been  organised  for  buying  up  all  prisoners 
made  in  war  for  the  purposes  of  the  slave-trade.  The 
advent  of  the  Jesuits  with  their  rescript  in  favour  of 
converted  Indians  would,  of  course,  put  a  stop  to  this 
illegal  traffic ;  and  the  Santa  Cruzians  therefore  did  all 
they  could  to  impede  the  mission.  Their  real  motive 
they  did  not,  for  shame's  sake,  venture  to  avow ;  but 
they  hung  about  the  Father,  and  overwhelmed  him  with 
civilities,  magnifying  all  the  while  the  dangers  he  was 
likely  to  encounter,  the  blind  hatred  of  the  Indians,  the 
frightful  insalubrity  of  the  climate,  and  the  contagious 
diseases  which  even  at  that-  moment  were  raging  among 
them.  To  all  this,  and  much  more  besides,  the  Father 
listened  with  grave  politeness ;  but  when  it  was  his  turn 
to  answer,  the  only  notice  he  took  of  their  alarming  re- 
presentations was  to  exhort  them  earnestly  to  lessen  the 
evils  of  which  they  spoke,  by  aiding  him  in  his  mission ; 
and  when  they  refused,  he  left  them,  to  proceed  upon 
his  journey.  They  had  not  certainly  exaggerated  the 
danger,  for  the  plague  was  raging  in  the  very  first  vil- 
lage which  he  entered ;  but  it  proved  a  happy  circum- 
stance in  the  end ;  for  while  it  could  not  damp  his  zeal, 
the  services  it  enabled  him  to  render  to  all  without  ex- 
ception won  him  the  confidence  of  the  survivors.  A 
church  was  built,  and  a  reduction  founded ;  and  another 
tribe  having  expressed  a  wish  to  see  him,  he  sent  them 
word  to  come  at  once,  that  he  might  receive  and  bless 
them  as  his  children.  The  invitation  was  instantly  ac- 
cepted; and  the  reduction  thus  formed  having  been 
removed  to  a  more  healthy  situation  on  the  river  St. 
Michael,  another  was  without  delay  established  on  that 
of  Jacopo. 

During  Father  de  Arce's  absence  at  the  latter  place, 
the  Mamelukes  attacked  St.  Michael's,  imagining  that, 
from  its  being  so  recent  a  foundation,  it  would  prove  an 


CH.  VII.]  THE  FINAL  BLOW.  87 

easy  acquisition.  But  the  Chiquitos  were  naturally  a 
far  more  warlike  people  than  their  old  victims  of  the 
Guarani  nation ;  and  they  prepared  gallantly  for  their 
defence.  Father  de  Arce,  however,  being  absent  from 
the  reduction,  they  were  unwilling-  to  begin  the  combat 
without  the  assurance  of  his  blessing*.  He  returned 
just  in  time,  heard  the  confession  of  every  fighting- 
man,  gave  them  Communion  on  the  battle-field,  and 
before  the  sun  had  fairly  risen  they  had  attacked  and 
entirely  defeated  the  foe.  Their  success  gave  an  abso- 
lute and  unexpected  development  to  the  young-  mission 
of  the  Chiquitos ;  new  settlements  were  as  rapidly  and 
solidly  founded ;  and  the  republic  thus  suddenly  created 
soon  vied  with  that  of  the  Guarani  Indians.  The  Jesuits 
pushed  these  advantages  far  beyond  the  nation  with 
which  they  had  commenced;  and  tribes  which  the 
Spaniards  had  never  known  or  had  known  only  by  the 
devastations  they  committed — among-  others,  the  Lulles, 
one  of  the  fiercest  and  hitherto  most  intractable  of  all 
— were  in  a  very  short  time  converted  and  civilised. 

The  Father  Cavallero — and  his  life  is  but  a  sample 
of  what  hundreds  of  other  missionaries  were  doing-  at 
the  same  time — spent  his  days  in  passing'  from  nation 
to  nation,  every  where  announcing-  the  Gospel,  every 
where,  as  a  necessary  consequence,  braving-  the  death 
which  finally  overtook  him ;  but  every  where  subduing- 
the  savages  among-  whom  he  had  cast  his  lot  by  the 
power  of  his  doctrine  and  the  sweetness  of  his  words. 
Sometimes  he  was  openly  menaced  with  their  ven- 
geance ;  at  others  he  only  narrowly  escaped  the  snares 
laid  cunningly  for  his  life ;  but  still,  unmindful  of  fa- 
tigue or  danger,  he  proceeded  boldly  and  perseveringiy 
on  his  way.  Innumerable  reductions  marked  the  spots 
where  his  steps  had  been,  and  his  journe}nngs  were  one 
long*  triumph  of  the  cross,  until  he  reached  the  country 
of  the  Puizocas,  which  was  destined  to  prove  his  grave. 
An  arrow  from  a  hostile  savage  pierced  him  between 
the  shoulders ;  he  still  had  strength  to  plant  the  cross 
he  carried  in  the  ground,  and  there  he  knelt  in  prayer 


88  PARAGUAY. 

until  he  finally  expired  beneath  the  repeated  blows  of 
the  macanas.  It  was  the  10th  of  September  1711.  His 
martyrdom  was  the  signal  for  many  others.  The  Fa- 
thers de  Arce,  Blende,  Sylva,  and  Maco,  with  thirty  of 
their  neophytes,  perished  beneath  the  clubs  of  the 
Payaguas  in  a  fruitless  attempt  to  navigate  the  Para- 
guay; while  Brother  Romero,  with  twelve  other  In- 
dians, were  murdered  by  the  Zamucos  in  a  sudden  fit 
of  rage.  Hardly  had  they  done  the  deed,  when  they 
fled  to  hide  themselves  in  the  mountains ;  and  there, 
believing-  themselves  safe  alike  from  the  vengeance  of 
Heaven  and  the  reproaches  of  the  Jesuits,  they  were 
still  boasting*  of  their  recovered  freedom,  when  Fathers 
de  Aguilar  and  Castanarez,  who  had  followed  to  appease 
their  anger,  entered  their  tolderias.  Such  untiring' 
charity  was  not  to  be  resisted,  and  the  savages  followed 
them  quietly  back  to  their  old  reduction  of  St.  Raphael, 
where  they  commenced  again  the  life  of  labour  and  in- 
struction which  this  murderous  outbreak  had  so  lament- 
ably interrupted. 

Neither  these  nor  any  other  of  the  massacres  which 
from  time  to  time  occurred  had  power  to  interrupt, 
hardly  even  to  retard,  the  plan  of  operations  which  the 
Jesuit  Fathers  had  traced  out  for  themselves.  Where 
one  man  fell,  another  was  always  ready  to  step  into  his 
place ;  and  while  new  reductions  were  continually  be- 
ing formed,  the  old  ones  were  just  as  constantly  ad- 
vancing towards  the  moral  and  material  prosperity 
contemplated  by  their  founders, — a  prosperity  not  ma- 
terially affected  even  by  that  rebellion  of  Antequera 
which  at  one  time  had  nearly  threatened  to  dissever 
Paraguay  from  the  Spanish  dominions.  Strictly  speak- 
ing, Antequera  was  not  the  governor  of  the  province, 
having  been  sent  by  the  royal  audience  of  Charcas 
merely  to  settle  some  disputes  which  had  arisen  be- 
tween the  actual  governor  and  his  subjects;  but  the 
charge  was  too  tempting  for  his  ambition,  and  instead 
of  mediating  between  the  contending  parties,  he  seized 
the  government  for  himself,  and  maintained  it  by  force 


CH.  VII. J  THE  FINAL  BLOW.  89 

of  arms.  The  province  being-  already  in  a  factious 
state  was  easily  induced  to  declare  in  his  favour ;  and 
as  the  Indians  of  the  reductions  were  the  only  part  of 
the  population  that  took  no  part  in  the  revolt,  the  Je- 
suits by  whom  they  were  directed  became  the  objects 
of  his  suspicion.  They  were  expelled  in  consequence 
from  their  college  at  Assumption,  notwithstanding'  the 
earnest  remonstrances  of  Don  Joseph  Paloz,  the  newly- 
appointed  coadjutor-bishop  of  the  city,  who  showed 
himself  an  angel  of  peace  and  mercy  through  all  the 
stormy  events  that  darkened  his  episcopate.  On  his 
part,  Antecpiera  endeavoured  to  justify  his  illegal  vio- 
lence towards  the  Fathers  by  first  raking*  up  all  the  old 
exploded  accusations  against  them,  and  then  inventing* 
new  ones.  The  story  of  the  gold-mines  was,  of  course, 
revived  and  made  the  most  of,  as  best  calculated  to 
find  favour  with  the  multitude;  and  their  passions 
were  yet  further  excited  by  a  promise  of  the  plunder  of 
the  reductions  whenever  they  should  be  subdued;  and 
an  assignment  of  the  inhabitants  to  the  colonists  as 
slaves.  But  the  usurper  had  pledged  himself  to  more 
than  he  could  perform.  Ere  half  his  plans  had  been 
accomplished,  the  Council  of  the  Indies  put  forth  all  its 
strength,  and  the  Jesuits  were  restored  by  an  edict  to 
Assumption;  while  Antequera  was  brought  back  pri- 
soner to  Lima,  under  sentence  of  death  for  his  rebel- 
lion. At  that  awful  hour,  with  the  fear  of  death  before 
him,  the  veil  fell  from  his  eyes ;  he  confessed  the  in- 
justice of  which  he  had  been  guilty,  and  gave  signal 
testimony  of  his  sincerity  by  begging  to  be  attended  in 
prison  by  some  of  the  very  men  whom  he  had  so  cruelly 
persecuted.  At  once  responding  to  his  appeal,  several 
of  the  Fathers  hastened  to  share  his  confinement ;  and 
Antequera,  selecting  one  to  prepare  him  for  his  doom, 
besought  him  not  to  leave  him  even  for  a  moment; 
moreover,  he  declared  to  all  who  saw  him  the  utter 
ft  "\sity  of  the  accusations  he  had  brought  against  them, 
and  prepared  a  paper  to  the  same  effect  to  be  read  be- 
fore the  execution  of  his  sentence.     Yet  all  this  failed 


90  PARAGUAY. 

to  reinstate  them  in  the  good  opinion  of  the  Paraguay- 
ans ;  so  much  more  easy  is  it  to  sow  falsehood  broadcast 
than  afterwards  to  uproot  it ;  and  their  very  attendance 
on  him  in  prison,  and  afterwards  on  the  scaffold,  though 
in  both  instances  in  compliance  with  his  own  earnest 
request,  was  construed  into  an  insolent  triumph  over  a 
fallen  foe.  Antequera  had  been  a  favourite  with  the 
people,  and  his  death,  far  from  tranquillising  them, 
roused  the  yet  smouldering*  embers  of  discontent.  The 
city  of  Assumption  revolted  outright;  a  junta  was 
named  for  its  government ;  riots  and  excesses  of  every 
description  followed,  during  which  the  Jesuits  were 
once  more  expelled;  and  despairing  of  effecting  any 
good  among  a  people  thus  self-abandoned  to  their  pas- 
sions, the  Bishop  refused  to  lend  to  their  proceedings 
the  sanction  of  his  presence,  and  left  the  city.  Zavalo, 
a  nobleman  of  high  standing  and  repute,  was  sent  to 
quell  the  insurrection ;  but  finding  the  citizens  in  favour 
of  tlw  junta,  he  fell  back  upon  the  reductions,  where 
seven  thousand  Indians  mustered  at  his  call ;  and  thus 
supported,  he  marched  against  the  town.  War,  with 
all  its  miseries,  ensued;  but  after  months  of  varying 
fortune  on  either  side,  the  rebels  were  finally  defeated ; 
the  heathen  Indians,  who  at  the  first  note  of  war  had 
armed  against  their  Spanish  masters,  were  overpowered; 
and  peace  and  order  being  thus  restored  to  the  pro- 
vince, the  Christian  Indians  marched  back  to  then*  re- 
ductions, there  to  face  a  far  more  fearful  foe  than  any 
they  had  left  behind  them,  in  the  famine  which  the 
absence  of  so  many  of  the  working-members  during 
the  sowing-season  had  necessarily  occasioned. 

The  very  fact  of  this  rebellion  having  been  repressed 
entirely  by  the  Indians  of  the  reductions  told  with  fatal 
effect  upon  the  popularity  of  the  Jesuits.  Men  who  in 
their  frantic  hatred  had  already  driven  them  from  their 
homes  by  raising  a  senseless  outcry,  without  show  of 
justice  or  pretence  at  a  trial,  were  not  likely  to  love 
them  better  now  that  by  means  of  these  despised  natives, 
whose  liberty  they  had  preserved  and  whose  characters 


CH.  VII.]  THE  FINAL  BLOW.  91 

they  liad  formed,  their  own  seditious  plots  and  covet- 
ous designs  had  been  so  shamefully  defeated.  But,  dis- 
armed and  powerless,  baffled  and  disappointed  as  they 
were,  the  colonists  of  those  days  were  not  the  men  to 
let  a  victim  go  unscathed  merely  because  it  had  for 
once  escaped  them.  Open  violence  had  failed ;  intrigue 
and  calumny  were  left  them,  and  these  they  plied  with- 
out pity  or  remorse.  With  characteristic  audacity  they 
changed  at  once  from  rebels  into  loyal  subjects;  and 
affecting  an  intense  anxiety  for  the  interests  of  the  very 
crown  against  which  they  had  so  lately  been  in  arms, 
they  poured  in  memorial  after  memorial,  first  to  the 
Council  of  the  Indies,  and  then  more  directly  to  the 
court  of  Spain,  denouncing  the  authority  exercised  by 
the  Jesuits  in  their  reductions  as  derogatory  to  that  of 
the  Spanish  monarch,  and  accusing  them  moreover  of 
embezzling  enormous  sums  due  to  the  government  from 
the  converted  Indians.  The  Fathers  met  these  accusa- 
tions in  the  only  way  in  which  it  was  possible  to  meet 
them,  that  is  to  say,  by  an  earnest  petition  for  a  legal 
trial;  and  in  the  year  1732  a  commission  was  in  con- 
sequence issued,  empowering  John  Vascpiez  de  Aguero 
to  proceed  to  America  for  the  purpose  of  investigating 
the  latter  and  more  tangible  portion  of  the  charge. 
The  result  of  this  inquiry,  concluded  just  four  years 
after  it  had  been  first  instituted,  proved  that,  owing  to 
the  variety  of  epidemical  diseases  which  continually 
desolated  the  reductions,  there  was  an  inevitable  varia- 
tion from  year  to  year  in  the  numbers  of  the  population; 
but  that  the  tribute  had  always  been  paid  exactly  ac- 
cording to  the  numerical  lists  sent  in  by  the  Jesuits, 
and  that,  these  lists  being  on  examination  found  to 
have  rather  exceeded  than  understated  the  actual  pro- 
portion of  inhabitants  to  each  reduction,  the  Society 
was  clearly  acquitted  of  an}'  desig-n  of  defrauding  the 
revenue.  Don  Vasquez  added,  that  so  far  from  the 
reductions  possessing  the  enormous  wealth  which  was 
supposed  to  exist  among  them,  th<^  tribute,  if  augmented, 
as  the  colonists  were  clamorous  it  should  be,  would  be- 


92  PARAGUAY. 

come  so  insupportable  a  burden  to  the  Indians,  that  it 
would  probably  end  by  their  throwing-  it  off  altogether. 
This  decision,  the  result  of  testimony  taken  on  the  spot 
and  after  repeated  conferences  with  the  governor,  the 
bishop,  and  other  officials  of  the  province,  would  have 
satisfied  the  king-,  even  if  he  had  previously  entertained 
any  doubts,  which  certainly  he  had  not ;  and  he  readily 
followed  the  advice  of  Don  Vasquez  with  reference  to 
the  tribute,  which  up  to  the  period  of  the  expulsion  of 
the  Jesuits  remained  at  precisely  the  same  ratio  at 
which  it  had  been  fixed  in  the  beginning. 

Meanwhile  neither  the  vexations  attendant  on  this 
dispute,  nor  the  previous  more  open  persecution,  had 
caused  the  Fathers  to  relax  in  their  efforts  for  the  con- 
version of  the  heathen.  The  desert  of  Chaco  was  once 
more  attempted,  and  this  time  at  the  especial  request  of 
the  viceroy,  who  found  it  absolutely  impossible  to  reduce 
the  inhabitants  without  their  aid.  Lizard i,  Chome,  and 
Pons  obeyed  the  call ;  but  when  they  found  that  an  army 
was  to  march  into  the  country  with  them,  they  positively 
refused  to  accompany  it.  It  was  not  by  the  sword  that 
they  had  hitherto  won  the  Indians  to  obedience ;  and 
neither  by  the  sword,  nor  in  company  with  the  sword, 
would  they  now  undertake  the  enterprise.  Alone,  there- 
fore, and  with  no  other  weapons  than  the  Cross  and  the 
Breviary,  they  set  out  upon  a  mission  which  had  already 
brought  death  to  so  many  of  the  Fathers.  A  reduction 
was  soon  formed  by  their  united  exertions  within  seven 
leagues  of  Tarija,  and  it  promised  to  become  a  most 
flourishing  settlement.  But  some  rumours  of  the  in- 
tended army  had  probably  already  reached  the  more 
distant  portion  of  the  desert ;  for  the  Chiriguanes  of  the 
Cordilleras,  the  tribe  they  were  especially  in  quest  of, 
every  where  fled  before  them.  In  vain  they  explored 
mountains,  forded  rivers,  searched  the  depths  of  almost 
impenetrable  forests,  not  a  savage  could  they  see  or 
hear  of;  and  they  had  come  in  considerable  perplexity 
to  a  halt,  when  word  was  brought  them  that  the  tribe 
they  were  seeking  were  assembling  in  great  numbers 


CH.  VII.]  THE  FINAL  BLOW.  93 

and  in  hostile  guise  near  the  reduction  of  the  Conception. 
Hither  Lizardi  flew  at  once  for  the  protection  of  his 
neophytes ;  but  finding-  all  thing's  apparently  calm  and 
tranquil  on  his  arrival,  he  supposed  he  had  been  mis- 
informed, and  prepared  to  offer  the  Adorable  Sacrifice. 
Scarcely,  however,  had  he  reached  the  altar-steps,  when, 
from  the  woods  and  mountain-fastnesses  where  they 
had  lain  concealed,  the  Chiriguanes  came  pouring-  into 
the  village,  put  the  terrified  neophytes  to  flight,  and 
carried  the  missionary  off  in  triumph.  Amid  blows 
and  insults  they  dragged  him  on,  until,  half-dead  already 
with  the  treatment  he  had  received,  they  set  him  on  a 
rock  as  a  target  for  their  arrows ;  and  when  a  day  or 
two  afterwards  the  neophytes  ventured  to  return  to 
their  deserted  village,  they  found  the  Father  on  the 
spot  where  his  foes  had  left  him,  his  body  pierced  with 
arrows — his  Crucifix  at  his  side,  and  his  Breviary  open 
at  the  office  for  the  dying,  as  if  he  had  sought  to  recite 
it  over  himself  during  the  long  and  lingering'  agony 
that  must  have  ushered  in  his  death.  Pons,  who  had 
accompanied  him  in  his  expedition  to  the  desert,  re- 
turned to  take  charge  -of  the  bereaved  reduction,  while 
Chome  was  sent  forward  in  search  of  souls.  To  make 
amends  for  this  disaster,  the  fierce  tribes  of  the  Zamucos 
were  formed  into  a  reduction  by  the  Fathers  de  Aguilar 
and  Castanarez ;  the  latter  subsequently  preached  to  the 
Borillos,  and  after  them  to  the  tribe  of  the  Mataguayos, 
among*  whom  he  was  treacherously  massacred  on  the 
15th  of  September  1744. 

In  the  yet  more  southern  parts  of  America  other  Fa- 
thers of  the  Society  had  succeeded  admirably  both  with 
the  wandering  tribes  of  the  pampas  and  the  inhabitants 
of  the  mountain-range  which  separates  Chili  from  the 
province  of  Patagonia,  among  whom  they  had  begun 
to  form  flourishing  reductions,  when  their  labours  were 
again  assailed  with  injurious  suspicions,  and  the  story 
of  the  gold-mines  was  once  more  revived. 

This  time  the  rumour  came  from  Portugal ;  and 
reaching  the  ear  of  the  viceroy  of  Brazil,  he,  in  a  fit  of 


94  PARAGUAY. 

almost  inconceivable  credulity,  persuaded  his  government 
to  exchange  a  colony  it  possessed  on  the  east  side  of 
La  Plata  for  the  seven  reductions  founded  on  the  hanks 
of  the  Uruguay.  So  convinced,  indeed,  was  he  of  the 
truth  of  the  story,  that  he  even  stipulated  that  the 
poor  Indians  should  be  removed  to  another  part  of  the 
province,  in  order  that  he  might  prosecute  his  search 
with  less  interruption;  and  the  proposition  having  Ix^n 
accepted  by  the  Spanish  government,  the  Fathers  of  the 
Society  were  themselves  intrusted  with  its  execution. 
Bernard  Neydorifert  was  the  one  to  whom  ,-t  was  more 
especially  confided,  a  man  inexpressibly  dear  to  the 
neophytes,  among  whom  he  had  spent  the  best  five- 
and-thirty  years  of  his  missionary  life ;  yet  when  he 
assembled  the  caciques  of  the  several  reductions,  and 
explained  to  them  the  conditions  of  the  treaty,  they  re- 
sisted to  a  man,  declaring-  that  death  was  preferable  to 
such  an  exile,  and  that  force  alone  should  drive  them 
from  the  beloved  homes  and  haunts  of  their  childhood. 
To  force  accordingly  recourse  was  had;  and  the  Je- 
suits, who  sought  to  pacify  the  minds  of  the  natives, 
were  blamed  alike  by  both  parties;  the  government 
attributing  to  their  unwillingness  the  failure  of  the  ne- 
gotiation,  while  the  Indians,  on  their  part,  totally  un- 
able to  comprehend  the  position  in  which  the  Fathers 
were  placed,  and  the  motives  by  which  they  were  actu- 
ated, openly  declared  that  for  once  they  believed  the 
Fathers  had  betrayed  them.  An  army  was  necessary 
to  enforce  the  treaty,  and  the  wretched  inhabitants 
were  driven  from  their  reductions  at  the  point  of  the 
bayonet ;  but  when  the  Portuguese  came  to  explore  the 
mountains  which  they  had  wrested  from  the  broken- 
hearted  savage,  they  discovered  too  late  the  fallacy  of 
their  expectations;  neither  silver  nor  gold  could  they 
find,  and  they  were  fain  to  entreat  the  Jesuits  once 
more  to  collect  and  appease  the  natives,  without  the 
aid  of  wrhose  labours  their  recent  acquisition  would 
have  become  a  desert.  This  the  Fathers  were  only  too 
happy  to  attempt;  but  the  savages,  after  all  that  had 


CH.  VII.]  THE  FINAL  BLOW.  05 

occurred,  were  naturally  sore  and  suspicious;  and  the 
endeavour  to  bring-  the  natives  Lack  to  their  old  homes 
had  by  no  means  been  crowned  with  entire  success, 
when  Charles  III.  ascended  the  throne  of  Spain,  and 
breaking-  the  fatal  treaty  of  exchange,  to  which  he  had 
always  been  opposed,  resumed  the  Uruguay  reductions 
as  a  portion  of  his  own  dominions,  in  the  year  1759, 
just  nine  years  after  the  separation. 

But  the  time  was  fast  approaching*  when  the  reduc- 
tions of  South  America  were  to  exist  no  more  except  in 
the  history  of  the  country  which  had  cradled  them,  and 
of  the  Society  which  had  given  them  birth,  and  whose 
name  will  through  all  times  be  identified  with  theirs. 
Henceforth,  indeed,  the  Jesuits  were  to  be  severed 
finally  and  for  ever  from  those  missions  which  they  had 
founded  with  so  much  pain  and  toil,  and  had  cemented 
with  their  blood  ;  and  which,  deprived  of  their  vigilant 
and  careful  guardianship,  were  too  soon  to  lose  their 
distinctive  character  as  the  home  of  the  civilised  Indian, 
and  to  dwindle,  under  the  ignorance  and  oppression  of 
those  by  whom  the  charge  had  been  usurped,  into  mere 
aggregations  of  half- Christian  half-heathen,  partially 
reclaimed,  but  wholly  helpless  and  untaught  barbarians. 
It  is  true  that  the  Fathers  had  been  pronounced  inno- 
cent by  the  king's  own  appointed  judges, — that  they 
had  been  proved  innocent  by  the  bootless  search  of  the 
Portuguese  for  gold  in  their  reductions, — that  they 
had  proved  themselves  innocent  by  their  calm  submis- 
sion to  the  government  at  a  moment  when,  by  coun- 
tenancing the  revolt  of  their  neophytes,  they  might 
have  opposed  violence  to  injustice,  and  have  changed 
into  substantial  reality  the  kingdom  they  were  accused 
of  coveting  in  the  new  world ; — innocent,  then,  they 
were,  if  innocence  can  be  established  by  any  amount  of 
testimony;  innocent  of  any  designs  against  the  state, 
of  any  unlawful  lust  for  riches  or  for  power  in  the  for- 
mation and  conduct  of  their  reductions.  But  the  prin- 
ciple with  which  they  had  inaugurated  their  work  in 
the  beginning  was  that  which  wrought  its  downfall  in 


9(3  PARAGUAY. 

the  end ;  for  in  advocating*  the  personal  freedom  of  the 
native  as  the  basis  of  their  system  for  his  regeneration, 
they  were  demanding-  the  one  sole  boon  which  the  colo- 
nists were  determined  to  withhold.  It  was  a  principle, 
however,  and  therefore  not  to  be  relinquished,  whatever 
might  be  the  cost  to  its  upholders ;  but  precisely  be- 
cause it  was  a  principle,  and  not  a  mere  opinion,  it  had 
been  ever  urged  by  the  Society,  {irmly  indeed  and  ear- 
nestly, and  with  unwearied  energy  and  perseverance, 
but  without  any  unseemly  ebullition  of  passion  or  ill- 
will  towards  its  antagonists;  and,  content  themselves 
to  oppose  facts  to  falsehood,  we  ever  find  its  members, 
throughout  the  turbulent  history  of  those  first  colonial 
governments,  and  all  the  temptations  presented  to  ill- 
regulated  ambition,  on  the  side  of  justice,  order,  and 
religion.  Thus,  while  the  Jesuit  dared  boldly  to  re- 
prove and  withstand  the  Spaniards  in  their  ill-usage  of 
the  native,  he  never  hesitated  to  risk  his  own  life  to 
avert  from  them  the  merited  vengeance  of  the  irritated 
savage ;  and  while  persecution,  calumny,  and  intrigue 
were  still  darkening  around  him,  he  pursued  his  mis- 
sionary career  silently,  grandly,  and  heroically,  and 
with  the  martyr's  blood  and  the  martyr's  palm  replied 
to  the  senseless  outcries  of  his  accusers.  But  neither 
patient  endurance  nor  active  deeds  of  charity  and  good- 
ness could  silence  a  burst  of  hatred  which  was  the 
result  of  passion  and  not  of  reason;  and  while  the 
Jesuits  were  shedding  their  blood  in  the  new  world 
with  a  profusion  that  would  have  been  reckless  if  the 
cause  had  been  less  noble,  every  nation  in  the  old  was 
ringing  with  the  accusations  of  their  traducers;  and 
every  court  in  Europe  contained  implacable  and  power- 
ful foes,  who  had  definitely  vowed  their  downfall. 

Into  the  particulars  of  the  cabal  by  which  their  ruin 
was  accomplished  at  Madrid  we  have  here  no  need  to 
enter,  our  only  object  being  to  treat  of  the  effect  of  its 
machinations  upon  the  reductions.  It  will  be  sufficient, 
therefore,  to  say,  that  the  mind  of  the  king  was  gra- 
iually  and  systematically  poisoned  against  them ;  that 


CH.  VII.]  THE  FINAL  BLOW.  97 

he  was  taught  to  distrust  their  intention?,  and.  jealous 
a?  he  was  of  his  royal  prerogative-,  to  tremble  at 

power.  According-  to  Schoel,  Adam,  and  other  Pro- 
testant historians,  a  letter  attacking*  his  legitimacy, 
and,  of  course,  his  right  to  the  crown,  purporting  to 
be  written  by  the  general  of  the  Jesuits,  but  in  reality 
forged  by  their  arch-enemy  the  Duke  de  Choiseul,  set 
the  seal  upon  his  resentment,  and  enabled  Aranda,  his 
prime-minister  and  their  worst  foe,  to  obtain  from  him 
that  final  act  by  which  they  were  banished  from  his 
dominions.  The  reductions  were  of  course  included  in 
this  sweeping*  sentence.  The  decree  was  signed  on  the 
27th  of  March  1767  :  and  the  war-ship,  which  brought 
directions  for  its  secret  and  speedy  execution,  cast 
anchor  in  the  Plata,  on  the  7th  of  June  1767.  On  the 
21st  of  the  next  month,  sealed  orders  to  this  effect 
were  deposited  with  all  the  under-governors  of  the 
vice-regal  province;  and  on  the  22d  its  provisions 
were  fully  and  effectually  carried  out,  the  Fathers 
being*  seized,  every  one  at  his  own  reduction,  and  sent 
off  prisoners  to  Buenos  Ayres.  The  mandate  was  posi- 
tive, containing*  neither  exception  nor  discretionary 
power;  and  not  one  was  left  behind: — young-  and  old, 
sick  and  dying-,  all  at  one  fell  swoop  being-  hurried  away 
from  the  land  to  which  they  had  consecrated  their 
labours  and  their  lives,  and  in  which  they  had  bu 
hoped  to  find  a  grave,  amid  the  prayers  and  bl< 
of  the  savages  whom  they  had  reclaimed.  Bucareli, 
the  viceroy  of  Buenos  Ayres,  was  in  the  province  with 
a  body  of  chosen  troops;  but  the  precaution  was  not 
needed.  The  Jesuits  had  often  indeed,  and  fearlessly, 
opposed  the  Spaniards  when  they  oppressed  their  In- 
dians ;  but  now  that  the  injustice  was  only  against 
themselves,  not  an  opposing*  voice  was  heard  among 
them;  the  order  for  their  expulsion  was  obeyed  without 
a  murmur,  and  in  many  places  it  was  no  sooner  sig- 
nified to  the  Father  of  the  mission  than  he  surrendered 
himself  on  the  instant,  without  even  the  appearance  of 
compulsion  being*  necessary  for  his  removal.  Yet  it  can- 
R 


98  PARAGUAY, 

not  be  doubted,  that  had  they  chosen  to  appeal  to  their 
neophytes,  the  argument  of  force  and  numbers  would 
have  been  strongly  in  their  favour;  and  that  they  did  nut 
do  so  was,  therefore,  their  last  and  most  conclusive  answer 
to  their  accusers, — their  last  and  most  effective  protest 
against  that  voice  from  Europe  which  declared  that 
"  the  aggrandisement  of  their  own  society  was  the  sole 
object  of  its  members." 

The  exiled  Fathers  were  shipped  for  Italy,  where 
they  subsisted  on  a  pittance  doled  out  by  the  Spanish 
government ;  subject,  however,  to  the  condition,  that 
they  should  neither  speak  nor  write  in  defence  of  their 
society;  and  to  this  tyrannical  exaction  was  superadded 
another  still  more  insulting,  namely,  that  the  trans- 
gression of  a  single  member  in  this  particular  should 
be  imputed  to  the  entire  body,  and  punished  accord- 
ingly. 

They  were  replaced  in  most  of  their  deserted  mis- 
sions by  a  mongrel  government,  consisting  half  of  eccle- 
siastics and  half  of  laymen  ;  but  called  as  they  were  to 
the  task  without  tact,  experience,  or  knowledge  of  the 
peculiarities  of  the  people  with  whom  they  had  to  deal, 
the  attempt  is  on  all  sides  acknowledged  to  have  been 
a  failure.  Hardly,  indeed,  could  it  have  been  otherwise ; 
for  though  the  Indians  had  received  deep  religious  im- 
pressions, and  had  made  rapid  strides  towards  the  order 
and  industry  of  civilised  life,  yet  the  lawless  habits  of 
centuries  to  a  certain  extent  still  hung  about  them ; 
and  they  could  not  be  kept  together  as  a  social  body 
without  a  very  nice  and  judicious  adjustment  of  the 
influences  that  were  brought  to  bear  upon  them.  In  this 
adjustment  the  government  of  the  Jesuits  had  been  as 
eminently  successful  as  that  of  their  successors  was 
confessedly  otherwise ;  the  former  possessing  in  its 
rule  a  unity  of  purpose  which  commanded  the  respect 
of  the  Indians,  while  the  latter,  being  ever  and  always 
divided  against  itself,  left  the  unhappy  objects  of  its 
jurisdiction  either  perplexed  as  to  the.  authority  to  be 
obeyed,  or  doubtful  altogether  of  the  necessity  of  obe- 


CH.   VII.]  THE  FINAL  BLOW.  99 

dience.  The  lay  governor  was  most  frequently  a  tyrant; 
and  whereas  the  Jesuits  had  clone  all  on  system,  every 
tiling-  thereafter  was  unsettled  and  uncertain ;  individual 
caprice  being  substituted  for  a  code  of  regulations  which 
had  given  consistency  to  punishment  and  dignity  to 
ju  tice,  and  fear  being'  every  where  employed  to  compel 
submission  where  before  kindness  had  been  the  only 
prevailing-  argument.  Such  a  government,  and  so  di- 
rected, soon  told  with  fatal  effect  upon  the  reductions ; 
and  although  less  than  a  century  has  elapsed  since  they 
were  first  subjected  to  its  influence,  it  has  nearly  suc- 
a  eded  in  effacing-  all  of  mental  cultivation  and  external 
1  i  auty  which  the  Jesuits  had  effected  in  their  missions. 
Little  but  desolation  is  now  to  be  seen,  where  once  the 
Jesuit's  house  and  the  Indian's  cottag-e  stood  in  peace- 
ful prosperity  side  by  side.  The  public  buildings  have 
disappeared ;  the  churches  are  all  in  ruins ;  the  cottages 
have  degenerated  into  native  wigwams;  briers  and 
weeds  every  where  complete  the  picture  of  decay ;  the 
population  has  dwindled  from  thousands  to  hundreds, 
and  such  as  still  remain  have  half-resumed  the  indo- 
lence of  the  savage,  and  stand  listless,  desolate,  and 
zud,  at  the  doors  of  their  poverty-stricken  dwellings; 
while  in  reductions  which  once  could  pay  without  per- 
sonal privation,  though  not  without  wholesome  labour, 
a  yearly  tribute  to  the  king,  the  superior  of  the  mis- 
sions can  hardly  find  wherewithal  to  keep  starvation 
from  his  people. 

That  the  condition  of  the  South- American  Indian 
at  the  present  day  would  have  been  far  different  to 
what  it  is,  had  the  Jesuits  been  suffered  to  finish  the 
work  they  had  begun  so  well,  it  will  be  hardly  possible 
to  doubt,  if  we  judge  by  what  they  did  of  what  they 
would  have  done ;  and  this  seems,  after  all,  the  only 
fair  and  equitable  way  of  trying  the  question.  For 
eighty  years  they  held  possession  of  the  land ;  and  in 
those  eighty  years,  out  of  hundreds  of  wandering  tribes, 
separated  from  each  other  by  habits,  language,  religion, 
and  the  natural  animosity  that  arms  savage  against 


100  PARAGUAY. 

savage,  they  succeeded  in  forming*  a  nation  one  in 
habits,  language,  government, — above  all,  one  in  Chris- 
tian and  fraternal  unity ;  impressing'  on  all  so  deep  and 
broad  a  mark  of  civilisation,  that  the  traces  are  visible 
even  to  this  hour.  The  Guarani  Indians,  whom  at  so 
much  cost  and  trouble  they  brought  to  habits  of  indus- 
try and  order,  still  hold  together  as  a  Christian  people, 
and  still  constitute  the  bulk  of  the  working*  population ; 
so  that  whatever  of  agricultural  skill  is  brought  to  bear 
upon  the  land  is  the  result  entirely  of  the  old  reduc- 
tions. The  Guarani  language  also  retains  the  pre-emi- 
nence which  the  Jesuits  gave  it,  and  is  still  the  only 
organ  of  communication  among  the  inhabitants  of  Pa- 
raguay. Nor  is  the  missionary  himself  forgotten,  al- 
though two  generations  have  passed  away  since  he  was 
seen  in  the  land.  His  name  is  still  blest  by  those  who 
hear  it,  and  his  return  still  looked  for  as  an  era  of  good 
fortune  in  the  future  of  the  native  Indian.  Even  many 
of  the  little  religious  customs  which  he  taught  his  neo- 
phytes still  linger  among  their  descendants.  "  To  this 
day,"  says  a  recent  traveller,  "  the  children  in  Paraguay 
never  retire  to  rest  without  kneeling  to  ask  the  blessing* 
of  their  parents j  and  the  parents,  in  reply  to  the  ques- 
tion of  the  stranger,  will  tell  him  that  the  good  Jesuit 
Fathers  instructed  them  to  do  so." 

When  we  consider  the  men  by  whom  those  Fathers 
were  replaced,  and  the  sort  of  government  which  was 
substituted  for  their  paternal  rule,  we  shall  wonder 
rather  that  so  much  has  been  retained  than  that  so 
much  has  been  swept  away.  It  is  not  in  eighty  years 
that  the  most  wisely-conceived  and  most  efficiently- 
applied  S3rstem  of  cultivation  can  be  indelibly  impressed 
upon  the  character  of  a  nation.  A  thorough  civilisation 
is  the  growth  of  centuries ;  and  although  that  which  lias 
been  more  suddenly  developed  may  seem  to  flourish  for 
a  time  under  the  stimulus  of  authority,  it  is  almost  cer- 
tain eventually  to  fail.  It  is  fatal  to  the  very  body  of 
the  savage,  which  perishes  beneath  its  unaccustomed 
softnesses ;  as  a  mountain-flower  might  fade  if  exposed 


-CH.  VII.]  THE  FINAL  BLOW.  101 

unadvisedly  to  the  atmosphere  of  a  hot-house.  It 
dwarfs  the  very  powers  of  the  mind  it  is  intended  to 
enlarge,  by  coming-  too  suddenly  upon  it  before  it  has 
oeen  duly  prepared  for  its  reception;  and  it  either 
ceases  entirely  the  moment  the  forcing-  influence  has 
oeen  withdrawn,  or  it  merely  freezes  the  surface  of  so- 
ciety into  a  factitious  smoothness,  while  all  the  normal 
vices  of  the  barbarian  run  darkly  in  the  tide  below. 
Savage  nations  are,  in  fact,  as  little  fitted  to  receive  at 
once  the  fall  measure  of  civilisation,  pressed  down  and 
"unning*  over,  as  an  infant  to  take  upon  himself  the 
duties  of  a  man;  and  if  the  child  requires  to  be  in- 
structed day  by  day  in  the  mysteries  of  existence,  so 
a  rude  untutored  people  must  needs  be  led,  generation 
after  generation,  into  the  fall  light  of  social  knowledge 
— which  to  us,  indeed,  is  a  second  nature,  because  it  is 
our  inheritance  from  our  ancestors,  but  which,  we  must 
not  forget,  those  ancestors  won  step-  by  step,  and  were 
centuries  in  acquiring.  Both  nature  and  experience, 
then,  point  to  the  principle  of  gradual  initiation  as  the 
only  safe  one  in  the  instruction  of  savage  nations ;  and 
therefore  Raynal  himself,  the  utterer  of  so  many  blas- 
phemies against  the  Catholic  religion,  has  yet  not  hesi- 
tated to  declare,  in  his  Political  and  PldlosopMcal  His- 
tory of  the  Indies,  that  "  when  the  Jesuits  were  taken 
from  the  reductions,  their  Indians  had  arrived  at  the 
highest  point  of  civilisation  to  which  it  perhaps  is  pos- 
sible to  conduct  new  nations,  and  to  one  certainly  far 
higher  than  any  other  people  of  the  new  world  had 
hitherto  been  brought.  In  them  the  laws  were  every 
where  regularly  carried  out ;  manners  were  pure ;  a 
happy  spirit  of  fraternity  united  all  hearts ;  the  useful 
arts  were  carried  to  perfection ;  while  those  which  were 
merely  ornamental  were  cultivated  with  some  success." 
Most  unjustly,  then,  it  follows,  have  the  Jesuits  been 
reproached,  as  if  they  kept  the  Indian  purposely  in  the 
tutelage  of  a  child,  when  in  fact  they  were  only  fitting 
him  in  the  best  and  most  effective  manner  for  the  fall 
use  and  benefit  of  that  freedom  which,  by  their  own 


102  PARAGUAY. 

unprompted  and  unselfish  effort?,  they  had  won  him 
from  his  foes.  In  the  beginning-,  indeed,  all  the  business 
of  the  reductions  passed  of  necessity  through  their 
hands;  but  the  work  was  gradually  and  almost  im- 
perceptibly transferred  to  the  children  of  their  early  con- 
verts, who,  born  in  the  bosom  of  a  civilised  Christianity, 
were  easily  instructed  in  many  thing's  which  their  fa- 
thers, the  painted  warriors  and  hunters  just  taken  from 
the  woods,  could  never  have  been  brought  to  com- 
prehend. In  the  latter  days  of  the  reductions,  all  the 
mercantile  transactions  of  the  mission — the  exchange 
of  goods,  and  arrangement  of  the  tribute,  as  well  as  the 
providing-  for  the  various  necessities  of  the  inhabitants, 
— no  light  task  for  any  brain — were  confided  to  men 
whose  forefathers,  only  two  generations  before,  had  been 
so  ignorant  of  numbers,  that  four  was  the  highest  figure 
they  could  count  without  the  assistance  of  their  fingers. 
And  be  it  remembered,  that  all  this  was  effected  amidst 
difficulties  more  numerous  and  more  perplexing  than 
perhaps  any  similar  enterprise  had  ever  presented ;  for 
not  only  had  the  missionaries  to  contend  with  the  pre- 
judices of  the  nations  to  whom  they  were  sent  to  preach, 
but  to  encounter  the  unceasing  hostility  of  the  people 
in  whose  company  they  came ;  and  it  was  amidst  even- 
opposition  which  the  upholders  of  the  slave-trade  could 
bring  to  bear  against  them,  that  they  introduced  the 
Indians  into  the  fold  of  Christ,  and  to  all  the  blessings 
and  virtues  of  civilised  society  and  domestic  life.  Long 
ago  they  had  promised  the  Spaniards  to  make  men  and 
Christians  of  the  savnges  and  cannibals  of  whom  they 
were  sent  in  search  : — brave  promise  it  was  indeed,  yet 
not  a  rash  one;  for  who  shall  say  that  it  was  not 
fulfilled  to  the  very  letter  in  the  reductions  of  Paraguay, 
which  Voltaire  himself  pronounced  to  be  the  "  triumph 
of  humanity!" 

THE  END 


Robson,  Levey,  and  Franklyn,  Great  New  Street  and  Fetter  Lane. 


w 


DATE  DUE 

yggg&K-- 

ppa 

CAYLORD 

PRINTED  INU.S.A. 

